Families of workers killed in plant explosion file lawsuit

By Amy Teeple

Published on April 03, 2006

The two lawsuits, filed in the Sangamon County Circuit Court, charge 13 companies with negligence that lead to the explosion at the Illinois plant.

Formosa Plastics, the owner of the plant, is not named as a defendant in either suit. The lawsuits name the contractors responsible for the inspection and repair of the plant's large-scale sprinkler system and other safety devices, maintaining that those companies did not properly perform checks of the systems. The first breakdown took place when the safety system failed to deploy after a chemical leak. Minutes later, an explosion occurred and the deluge sprinkler system also failed.

The lawsuits also list Borden Chemical (now Hexicon Specialty Chemical) as a defendant. The suits allege that the company made changes to the drainage system of the reactors in 1997 (when Borden owned the plant) and failed to disclosed these changes to Formosa Plastics prior to selling the plant in 2002. These changes, according to the lawsuits, caused the chemical leak to occur the day of the explosion.

None of the 13 defendants have filed responses.

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