LOUISVILLE, Ky. — The U.S. Chemical Safety and Hazard Investigation Board has released an update concerning their investigation into the deadly Nov. 2024 Givaudan facility explosion.

What You Need To Know

  • Seven months after the deadly Givaudan plant explosion, federal investigators are releasing new findings

  • They researched the chemicals used on the day of the incident

  • Finding even under normal conditions, a buildup of pressure and temperature was possible

  • The investigation by the U.S. Chemical Safety and Hazard Investigation Board is ongoing

The five-page report details testing done on the chemicals found in the batch reactor vessel that exploded, killing two workers and injuring three others.

“Both the caramel coloring ingredient mixture as well as the sugar ingredient alone could experience a hazardous runaway reaction, producing dangerously high temperatures and pressures far beyond the reactor’s safe limits, which in turn could cause the reactor to explode,” the report stated. “A hazardous runaway chemical reaction can cause an explosion of a batch reactor similar to the batch reactor at the Givaudan facility.”

The CSB said it will continue to analyze several key areas, “including conducting additional chemical testing, analyzing the equipment recovered from the incident site, and evaluating the reactor’s relief system design.”

The remnants of the Givaudan plant in Louisville’s Clifton neighborhood (Spectrum News 1/Mason Brighton)

The investigation is still in progress.

On the afternoon of Nov. 12, 2024, an explosion at the plant reduced the facility to rubble. Several nearby homes and businesses were damaged, leaving some residents in the Clifton neighborhood displaced. The company has said it will not be rebuilt at the same location.

This wasn’t the first serious incident at the plant. An employee was killed April 11, 2003. According to an Occupational Safety and Health Administration investigation, two employees were preparing a tub and began pumping product from a tank and adding a cornstarch powder called maltin. The tub was being heated by steam, and it overflowed. According to the report, the tub exploded, killing one employee.

Last November Troy Beckman, owner of Beckman Fitness, was working in his gym on Frankfort Avenue when the explosion happened.

“So we ran up here. I thought a car had ran into the building or something like that. And then we walked outside and we could see in the back all the smoke and everything,” Beckman said.

The blast shattered windows on the front of his building. Nearby homes also had windows blown out and had damage to exterior walls.

Beckman said he’s glad to see Givaudan locate elsewhere.

“I think it’s overall what’s best. I don’t know where they’ll go or what the plan is for that but I think that’s probably what’s best,” he said.

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