Wisconsin plant explosion may have been caused by static electricity

In Columbia County, Wisconsin a 47 year old man died Sunday October 18^th, in an explosion in the American Packaging Corporation plant, according to the Wisconsin State Journal news source. Jeffrey Doxtator was from Columbus and had worked at the plant for 13 years. Fire Chief Randy Koehn said that Doxtator was using a handheld grinder which ignited sparks in an area of the plant designated hazardous. This employee error is thought to have caused the explosion and not the lack of safety precautions by the company. The Wisconsin plant has had good safety history according to electronic federal safety records.

At the time of the blast, 6pm, the only other workers in the building were the maintenance and janitorial crew, which evacuated the building. Doxtator, still in the building, was rescued by the firefighters and brought to Columbus Community Hospital. The coroner indicated Doxtator’s death to be from “multiple internal injuries due to blunt force trauma from the explosion.” The cost of the explosion to the building is estimated at $1.2 million.

American Packaging Corporation is privately held and has three plant locations: Columbia County, Wisconsin; Story City, Iowa; and the headquarters in Rochester, N.Y. The corporation produces specialty packaging for consumer goods.

At the time this blog was written the investigation of the Sunday explosion was still underway.

I'm not sure the error can be said to be that of the employee. That conclusion was stated as a fact at a time when no investigation had taken place. It would be important to know what actually caused the explosion: the tool being used may have had no effect on causing an explosion. Also I'd want to know who provided the tools, who selected the tools, what warnings were given about using tools in this area of the plant, whether it had been done previously without incident and with management's knowledge, the exact location and makeup of this department along with a whole host of other issues to be explored including static electricity as being the source of the ignition. I just don't agree with the conclusion reached by the news paper reporter or whoever decided what the cause of the explosion. There is more to it than a cursory examination would show.