NORTH ANDOVER — Four people were critically injured Thursday afternoon in an explosion at the Dow Chemical Plant, a hazardous materials incident that drew a massive emergency response to the Willow Street company and Lawrence General Hospital, where the victims were decontaminated and first treated.
Three of the Dow victims, who suffered shrapnel injuries and burns, were transferred to Boston hospitals for further treatment. At least two patients who went to Boston were airlifted by medical helicopter.
The fourth patient was admitted to Lawrence General Hospital.
None of the injured were identified by officials Thursday night.
The explosion was first reported at 2:30 p.m., triggering an enormous emergency response and flooding the chemical plant parking lot with police cruisers, fire trucks and ambulances. After the injured were taken by ambulance from the plant, Essex County firefighters specially trained in handling hazardous material incidents responded.
The State Fire Marshal’s office sent investigators in black trucks to the scene. A half dozen state fire trucks specially equipped for hazardous materials incidents arrived at the plant.
The incident was considered a Tier 3 hazardous materials response, which signifies a “long-term operation.” The highest response is a Tier 5, firefighters said.
At Lawrence General Hospital, city firefighters, working with hospital staff, set up a decontamination area near the entrance to the emergency room.
Firefighters, who trained for such incidents with LGH staff, used “copious amounts of water” to rinse down the four explosion victims and removed their clothing, explained Lawrence Fire Chief Brian Moriarty.
“We were prepared for a mass decontamination,” he said, noting crews for three fire trucks and the department’s fire prevention unit responded to LGH. “More hands make lighter work. And it worked quite well.”
Once the patients were decontaminated, they were immediately taken into trauma rooms inside the hospital.
“It’s very involved,” said Moriarty, of the decontamination process.
Dr. George Kondylis, LGH Emergency Medicine chief, said hospital staffers are trained to handle such injuries.
“As a verified trauma center we see critical injuries on a regular basis and know what to do. Our protocols worked just as they are intended to today, and probably 50 to 60 health care professionals, doctors, nurses, paramedics and others came to together to respond,” Kondylis said.
By 4:30 p.m., the decontamination area outside the hospital was idle and emergency response to the explosion appeared to be concluded.
Shortly after 6 p.m., state Fire Marshal Stephen Coan, along with North Andover Fire Lt. Bob Bonenfant, addressed the media to provide details on what exactly occurred at Dow Chemical at approximately 2:28 p.m.
“The first arriving units found multiple victims of an unknown chemical reaction in one of the laboratories in this facility,” Coan said near the entrance to Dow Chemical. “The North Andover Fire Department and area departments transported four victims to Lawrence General Hospital.”
While he did not confirm the exact cause of the explosion, Coan did say preliminary information indicated the chemical involved in the explosion was reactive to water and in this incident, appears to have done that, resulting in the explosion.
Hours after the explosion, grim-faced Dow workers left the plant boarding yellow buses parked nearby. Despite numerous questions from a throng of media assembled, none of the workers offered any comment.
This is the second recent explosion at the Dow plant, located at 60 Willow St., off Route 114.
An explosion at the facility on Oct. 9, 2013, killed Carlos Amaral, 51, of Peabody who suffered burns to half of his body. Amaral worked at Dow for 13 years.
Dow Chemical said in a 2014 statement that an internal investigation revealed the “release” and subsequent fire was caused by cleaning fluid inadvertently getting into the container holding a volatile chemical fluid called trimethylindium.
Trimethylindium is used in semiconductors and can ignite spontaneously upon contact with the air.
While North Andover police and firefighters were tied up at the Dow plant, a fire broke out in town. Crews from neighboring communities, including Lawrence, responded to the blaze.
“This is why in the fire service, we always have to be ready,” Moriarty noted. “We can have nothing for weeks and then all of a sudden, two big things at once. That’s why we have all the training, the drills, the staffing.”
Moriarty lauded the “good teamwork” that went on yesterday, involving area communities.
“This wasn’t our emergency — but it was,” he said.
Staff writers Lisa Kashinsky and Doug Moser contributed to this story.
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