MIDDLESEX, N.C. -- One person is dead after a morning explosion rocked Nash County.

It happened in Middlesex at a plant that manufactures wastewater treatment chemicals off of Highway 264.

People we spoke to say they heard a loud bang from up to four miles away. 

 “Some indication was he might have been using some type of electrical tool, whether it be drilling, grinding, but that’s early indication. From what I understand, some of the top of the debris from the explosion went over on to another site nearby.” Chief Mike Collins of Middlesex police says.

The hazmat team was called in for clean-up.       

 “There was some standing water that was up there and then with the explosion and everything that happened. There is some oil that had been used that had been leaked out into the water and so we felt like that standing water may have been contaminated. It’s a safety issue more than anything else,” Collins says.

Collins says Pencco’s corporate office located in Texas has been notified.

He believes the deceased may have had a leadership role at the plant as he was the only person on site the day after Thanksgiving.

Officials have not yet released to us the name of the worker who died.