Sunday, April 25, 2004

Illiopolis Explosion Some of you may have heard of the Formosa Plastics factory explosion in Illiopolis on Saturday, April 23. Judi Dunkel Headrick '58, a long-time resident of the town, sent me this report: "This has made the national news on NBC so in case you are wondering -- the chemical plant 1/2 mile from west edge of town -- I'm on the east end -- blew up about 10:45 pm last night (4/23) I couldn't see anything from my house but people for miles around that had a clear shot could and the explosion was felt on west side of Springfield (30 miles) -- and about same amount of distance south of Illiopolis. Happened about 10:45 last night (I was on the computer -- power went out and then the noise -- must have been a delayed sound as when the tank exploded at plant, it wiped out major electrical terminal -- 5 towns in surrounding area were also w/o electricity including us of course. The only thing that was lucky about this -- there was just a skeleton crew working (16) instead of full force of about 250 -- 3 people are dead, 4 badly injured, 4 with minor burns, 1 missing / unaccounted for at present. One of the dead was a woman & her husband was one hurt the most. Say that 65-70% of the plant is destroyed. They are still fighting to keep the other tanks wet / cool so they don't explode. It's suppose to rain today, wish it would hurry up. I hope we don't see anything like this again -- pretty scary." 4:53:22 PM    comment []

© Copyright 2004 William Howarth. Last update: 5/8/04; 3:41:17 PM.