A new federal report found that two deaths in a 2024 explosion at the Givaudan Sense Colour plant resulted from poor management and lack of training that left the Payne Street facility unprepared when one key piece of equipment malfunctioned.
In a press release, Steve Owens, chair of the U.S. Chemical Safety and Hazard Investigation Board, called it “a catastrophe waiting to happen.”
The explosion killed two workers – Kevens Dawson Jr. and Austin Jaggers – and destroyed the Givaudan plant that manufactured caramel food coloring. Ten people were hospitalized and a 2,000-pound reactor in which sugar was decomposing overheated and flew hundreds of feet into a neighboring yard…