A worker is dead and two others injured after an explosion at a St. Marys manufacturing plant on Thursday.
Emergency responders descended on the Mersen USA facility on Trout Run Road in St. Marys around 9 a.m., shortly after an industrial oven exploded inside the carbon and graphite products manufacturing plant, killing one worker and injuring two more.
While the cause of the blast remains unclear, Mersen’s management is calling it an “equipment related accident.”
Of the two employees injured in the blast, one is hospitalized with serious injuries and another is expected to make a full recovery, according to Mersen’s general manager in St. Marys, Noah Nichelson. The victim’s identities were not immediately released.
In a statement, Nichelson describes the situation at the plant as “contained and stabilized” following Thursday morning’s explosion. He pledged Mersen’s full cooperation in ongoing law enforcement and workplace safety investigations.
“We will continue to cooperate with the appropriate officials with our immediate focus on the three employees and their families who have been impacted by this accident as well as supporting our workforce,” Nichelson said.
Thursday’s worker death marks the second at Mersen’s St. Marys plant in as many years, according to Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) records.
In April of 2012, Michael Zwald, 39, of Ridgway, a Mersen employee, was killed while stacking storage bins at the company’s Trout Run Road plant. Records show Zwald died after impaling himself on a fork lift and severing a main artery.
Mersen was cited in October of 2012 for Occupational Health and Safety Standard violations, including failure to safeguard employees operating heavy machinery and following fork lift safety requirements. Penalties were not imposed.
That same month, the company paid $79,000 to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) in resolving the company’s violations of federal toxic chemical reporting requirements. According to EPA, Mersen’s St. Marys plant failed to annually account for large quantities of government regulated chemicals used in its manufacturing processes.
The case involved alleged reporting violations, and not unlawful releases of these chemicals, according to an EPA release.
Mersen management did not respond to requests for comment on safety procedures at the plant or its chemical reporting practices.
The global corporation’s U.S. arm oversees nine production sites in seven different states.
