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"My deepest sympathies and prayers go out to their families," said Lieutenant Colonel Jack Judy, the plant's commander during a press conference at 2 p.m. Tuesday at IAAP. "Nothing I can say can condole the pain of the families. Everyone working here, as well as our friends and families, are hurt by this."
At approximately 10:10 a.m. Monday, the explosion occurred, completely obliterating the bay in which production line one was housed. The bay was making purple and white colored "plastic" explosive warheads according to Judy. The warheads are known as plastic due to the fact that they can be molded.
The explosion completely destroyed the bay but did little to damage the surrounding area. This is due to the design of the bay and the whole plant according to Judy. The 20-by-20-foot bay was designed with reinforced concrete walls and designed so that when the blast occurred the main force of the explosion would be confined to one direction. The blast walls put up for this job did their work perfectly according to Judy, and only the one building was damaged.
Production was not halted in any other bay and the plant's production continues to be constant, Judy said. The explosion was almost 100 percent confined to the immediate area of the blast. There is some slight asbestos concern according to Judy, due to the nature of the buildings, but it would be confined to that small area where the blast took place.
"The buildings did what they were supposed to," Judy said. "If they weren't designed like they were it could have been worse."
The plant's rules only allowed two people to be in the bay at a time due to the dangerous nature of the job according to Judy.
The names of the two workers presumed dead were not released during the press conference. This, according to Judy, is to make sure that the plant does not release any information that will later be proved to be incorrect. The families of the two workers have been notified of the incident, but the families' names were not released. The only information given on the missing workers was that they were not new workers at the plant.
"We need to keep in mind the sensitivity of the people involved," Judy said.
There is an investigation underway to determine how the explosion occurred, what exactly happened and what the plant can do to prevent future occurrences of the incident, Judy said.
The plant, which is located in Middletown, has around 100 employees. Some of them are in the army and others are employees of American Ordnance, a company that the army hires out work to at the plant.
The last death at the plant was in 1968, Judy said, although it's uncertain exactly how many deaths have occurred.
"[There are] no complete records of the number of deaths," said Joel Gregory, president of American Ordnance. "[The death rate is] well below industry averages for this type of plant."
More information will be available later when the investigation begins to uncover exactly what took place Monday according to the officials. Gregory believes that although things like the accident do occur, the plant itself is not an overly dangerous place to work.
"It's a very safe place to work other than the obvious tragic accident," he said.
