An explosion at Williams Olefins chemical plant has occurred in Geismar, Louisiana. Reuters reported that the explosion happened on Thursday and there is an unknown number of injured people.
Captain of City of Gonzales Fire Dept, Corey Gautreaux, said to Reuters that emergency responders were treating people.
"It's an active scene. The fire department, the sheriff's office and hazmat (hazardous materials) team are responding to the explosion at the Williams Olefins plant," said Amy Johnson, a spokeswoman for the Ascension Parish Office of Homeland Security and Emergency Preparedness to Reuters.
The Associated Press reported that Louisiana's health department said that there were 73 people being treated in the hospital for injuries that range from minor to critical.
The facility is owned by The Williams Companies Inc. which is based in Tulsa, Oklahoma.
"The company said the blast happened at 8:37 a.m. at the plant in an industrial area of Geismar, a Mississippi River community about 20 miles southeast of Baton Rouge. The cause was not immediately known," reported the AP.
"God was with me today because I know when I looked back, I barely made it. I know somebody was hurt. There's no way everybody escaped that," said Daniel Cuthbertson to the AP, who was a contract worker present at the plant during the time of the explosion.
Several miles from the plant, State Senator Troy Brown said he felt the blast from his house.
"It felt like a three-second earthquake. It was a massive explosion," Brown said to the AP. He said that he drove to a nearby gas station and saw huge flames that were 100 to 200 feet high and were high visible above trees.
"It was scary," he added to the AP.
Seven fire departments responded, Kenyon said.
The plant makes ethylene and propylene which are both highly flammable gases.
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