Frantic Early Moments at Gloucester County, NJ, Plant Blast Captured on Body Cam

Eric Conklin | NJ.com

nj.com

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The response to a powerful explosion at a South Jersey processing plant that injured nearly a half-dozen people was tense.

Like any potential mass-casualty event, police cars and fire trucks converged on the building. The immediate need was to search for survivors and treat the wounded.

All the while, an inferno from a large, ruptured propane tank loomed over first responders, who feared a follow-up blast could be imminent. Meanwhile, the response reached both ends of the property and into the woods behind the building.

The rescue was captured on police body camera footage, which became available about four weeks after the blast at the Savita Naturals plant on Heron Drive in Logan Township, Gloucester County.

Minutes after the explosion, which severely damaged the cocoa butter factory, first responders began their frenetic search for injured workers.

In the first moments on the scene, township police realized the extent of a blast, which was heard as far away as Delaware, finding several workers who had burns that penetrated deeply.

“He’s burnt really f------ bad,” an officer says after encountering a wounded worker.

The Gloucester County Prosecutor’s Office immediately began investigating the explosion. Their investigation was transferred to the county’s emergency management team, a spokesperson for the prosecutor’s office said Saturday.

Gloucester County officials could not immediately be reached for comment.

Five people were sent to hospitals after the explosion around 2:30 p.m. March 5.

Concerns about a potential gas leak prompted officials to test the air for harmful gases and chemicals.

In the video viewed by NJ.com, first responders spread out to search for victims. Outside, the ambiance was a blend of a continuously loud hissing from the damaged tanks and fire truck sirens.

The police parked out front of the building, assessing the scene. Around the corner in a storage area for wooden pallets, one of the officers spots two workers ― one ushering the other, who was shirtless and had been burned, to safety.

As they continued searching outside the property, officers found a man back in the woods near a water tower. They called for help, racing to the man to assess his injuries.

“Is my nose burned off?” the man asked one of the officers who found him.

“No, you have a nose, just a little bit of skin,” the officer replies, appearing to point to his face to describe the extent of the burn injury.

Before being helped into a truck, the worker wanted reassurance, asking, “Is my face all f----- up?”

“You’ve got a burn, that’s it,” an officer in the background says.

“You ain’t uglier than me, that’s for sure,” another replies, jokingly.

Fearing workers were trapped inside, police swiftly entered the building. At a side door, a worker approached, asking about the extent of his burn.

Inside, they used flashlights to illuminate the dark building as the fire alarm rang. Their search appeared to last several minutes while the blaze continued burning outside.

“This may blow up again,” one of the officers says.

Back outside, several workers gathered on a grassy knoll across the street, some being interviewed by police. There, a worker wailed while kneeing, appearing to be in a state of shock. The officer asks medics to examine him for possible internal injuries.

The prosecutor’s office said investigators traced the explosion’s origins to inside the building. Residents nearby were given shelter-in-place orders until officials gave the all-clear.

In the footage, an officer appears to be speaking with a superior, describing the scene. Factory management estimated about “3,500 gallons” of propane was stored on the property, the officer said.

While outside, the police spot a factory manager. They question him about the moments leading up to the explosion. During questioning, the manager told police the blast was “not an intentional act.”

“What happens is they use food-grade propane to extract cocoa butter, so you have a lot of propane under pressure that becomes a liquid under pressure, so something happened,” the manager said.

About a dozen agencies responded to the scene, which is a part of an industrial complex near Interstate 295.

Cooper University Medical Center in Camden and Temple University Hospital in Philadelphia both treated victims burned by the explosion. Meanwhile, all of the workers were accounted for.

Logan Township Police Chief Joseph Flatley said the blast was the largest industrial accident in the township in 25 years, describing it as a “terrible tragedy.”

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