Explosion at Sonneborn
PETROLIA — At first, Anita Orozco thought what she heard was thunder.
“The first clap sounded very much like thunder,” she said Thursday afternoon.
By the second “clap,” though, the Sonneborn director of human resources knew she was dealing with something else entirely.
Orozco, along with other members of the Sonneborn administration, quickly learned an explosion had occurred at the plant at 1:22 p.m. Thursday.
They immediately alerted emergency services and accounted for all of their employees.
“We did have employees standing near (the explosion),” Orozco said. “We have operators that are working on that section of the plant all day long, 24/7, and that section does not shut down, so there were employees up there, but everyone was accounted for.”
Two employees were transported for minor injuries, according to Petrolia Ambulance Service commander Penny Reep.
The cause of the explosion, which happened at the hydro plant, was malfunctioning exterior equipment and caused large flames.
“All we're sure of at this point is it involved a heat exchanger,” she said.
Orozco said the device, which looks like a huge window air conditioner, transfers heat from one medium to another. There are other such devices in other areas of the site.
She said the company is investigating what caused the heat exchanger to go bad.
“They'll be digging into that,” Orozco said.
Volunteer fire departments that came to the plant included those from Petrolia, Bruin, Chicora, West Sunbury, East Butler, Sugar Creek Township and Emlenton.
The firefighters had things under control about two hours after the explosion.
Also assisting were the Petrolia Ambulance Services, the state police, the Butler County Sheriff Department and the Indspec Chemical Corp.Orozco was complimentary toward the emergency services.“They got everything under control relatively fast,” she said.No evacuations were made from the plant or the community. Residents from miles away said they heard the blast.Ron Ritzert, who lives a little more than a mile away from the plant on Tulip Road in Karns City, felt the explosion in his home.“All the windows rattled hard, and I heard the explosion,” he said. “I looked at the front screen door and it almost pushed it literally in the house.“It sounded like the jet engines running at top speed. I thought it was actually a plane wreck.”Mike Eichenauer, who lives about 10 miles away in Chicora, described the sound.“It was just a big boom,” he said. “It sounded like a bomb went off.”Sonneborn makes products such as petroleum jelly, baby oils and waxes.Orozco said the accident didn't impact Sonneborn's service.“We continued to ship,” Orozco said. “We've got inventory on stock.”A fire in January 2014 damaged storage tanks at Sonneborn. That was extinguished in 30 minutes and had little impact on the plant.
