Plant Blast Kills At Least Five

A team from the Occupational Health and Safety Administration is on its way to investigate a Sunday explosion that killed at least five at a Connecticut power plant that was under construction.

A natural gas line blew Sunday morning at the gas and oil power plant under construction in Middletown, Connecticut, for privately-held Kleen Energy Systems LLC by Siemens Energy and O&G Industries. The search for survivors continued through the night, even as Labor Secretary Hilda Solis said a team was on its way to investigate the causes of the accident.

Officials weren’t sure how many workers were actually on the scene at the time of the explosion, estimating anywhere from 100 to 200, a frustrating situation for rescue workers in this college town that is home to Wesleyan University.

“It’s one thing to say we don’t know who was on the job in the morning after the incident,” Middletown Mayor Sebastian N. Giuliano, told the New York Times Sunday evening. “But at this stage of the game to still be fuddling around with this is extremely frustrating. We’re trying to figure out who was on the site today and is home now, sitting at home watching the Super Bowl, and who might still be under the rubble.”

Several contractors and subcontractors were involved in the plant construction, and Giuliano said he wasn’t sure whether all those companies had been contracted.

"I saw the guys below me just got flattened. There was a group of them. I don't know how many," Nick, a worker from Norwich, Conn., told the New York Daily News. "I went over to people who were injured. It was horrible. I saw a man without a head. Some of them are real bad."

The plant, according to the Daily News, was nearing completion.

The Times reports that no safety concerns had previously been reported at the plant, which was being built at the site of a played-out Feldspar mine in a process that began more than a decade ago.

Philip Armetta, owner of Dainty Rubbish Systems, bought the 184 acres on which the plant was to sit, from an Atlanta company for $385,000. He was later indicted in a federal investigation of the state’s trash hauling systems, pleaded guilty to withholding information on a crime, sentenced to three months in prison, and placed his 45 percent interest in the project in trust.

Former Middletown City Councilman William J. Corvo became the public face of the project.

But in June 2008, private equity players Energy Investors Funds, which sank $985 million into the deal.