Access To Justice

Investigators will begin their investigation this morning into a huge explosion at an unfinished power plant in Connecticut that killed five people and left around a dozen injured yesterday, reports the Associated Press.

The blast at the Kleen Energy Systems plant in Middletown shook homes miles away and damaged windows and foundations at nearby houses, according to news reports.

Fire marshals and the U.S. Chemical Safety Board (CSB) are expected on the scene today to investigate the cause of the explosion. The AP writes that the facility’s gas line was being purged of air by workers for O&G industries when the Middletown explosion took place Sunday.  The under-construction plant is meant to produce energy using natural gas.

In a press release, that CSB says it issued urgent recommendations last week that the national fuel gas codes be changed to improve safety when gas pipes are being purged – cleared of air – during maintenance or the installation of new piping. The recommendations come in the wake of the CSB’s ongoing federal investigation into a natural gas explosion at a ConAgra Slim Jim factory in North Carolina that killed four people in 2009.