Accident Description

Accident: Synthron Chemical Explosion

Location: Location: Morganton, NC

Accident Occurred On: 01/31/2006 | Final Report Released On: 07/31/2007

Accident Type: Reactive Incident

Investigation Status: The CSB's final report was issued at a news conference in Charlotte, North Carolina on July 31, 2007

One worker was fatally burned and about a dozen others were injured when a powerful explosion devastated the Synthron Inc. chemical manufacturing facility. CSB investigators believe the explosion was related to the process inside a 1500-gallon batch reactor at the plant, which contained butyl acrylate along with the flammable solvents toluene and cyclohexane.

Synthron_Chemical_Explosion