by: Karry King
The U.S. Department of Labor Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) fined Carus Chemical $15,191 and issued two citations resulting from the January fire at their manufacturing plant in La Salle, Illinois. Carus is contesting the violations and fines that were issued after the investigation was completed on July 7, 2023.
One of the violations has a gravity of ten, which OSHA spokesman Scott Allen said is the most serious violation a company can receive. “This means it could have resulted in a serious injury or fatality,” said Allen.
According to the citation, “[Carus] failed to provide employees with non-combustible materials for use in storage and handling of potassium permanganate,” and their actions were “likely to cause death or serious physical harm to employees in that employees were exposed to fire hazards due to an oxidizer coming into contact with combustible materials.”
The fire, which rapidly spread through the warehouse and resulted in several explosions and the formation of a chemical cloud that caused chemicals to rain onto the community, started after a bag of potassium permanganate was ripped open while being loaded into a semi.
The damaged bag was placed on cardboard and moved to a different location in the warehouse. The chemical that spilled onto the floor was cleaned up and put in a plastic bucket.
Security camera footage obtained from the Illinois State Fire Marshal shows the pallet with the bucket and cardboard being pushed across the warehouse floor by a forklift with a trail of black powder behind it. Smoke and flames can be seen within seconds of the pallet being put into place. Security cameras from outside the warehouse show multiple explosions coming from inside the warehouse as the product spontaneously combusted.
Security Camera Footage and Illinois State Fire Marshal Report: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P744cEWzQVE
Explosions: https://www.youtube.com/shorts/MfTr5ZeUYAQ
Denise Trabbic-Pointer, a chemical engineer and certified hazardous material manager emeritus, who is volunteering in La Salle, said the cardboard provided fuel for the strong oxidizing agent, potassium permanganate. According to the fire marshal report, heat was created from the friction of the pallet dragging across the warehouse floor, which ignited the potassium permanganate and started the cardboard on fire.
“The potassium permanganate continued to propagate the fire and caused a much larger fire with all the surrounding combustible materials in the warehouse,” said Trabbic-Pointer.
Carus is no stranger to potassium permanganate spontaneously igniting when it touches cardboard. In 1986, the company lost a case before the New Jersey Supreme Court, Mahoney v. Carus Chemical Co., Inc., in which it was sued by Thomas Mahoney, a firefighter who was injured when he responded to a fire that broke out at Inversands, a customer that Carus shipped potassium permanganate packaged in fiber-cardboard drums.
Mahoney v. Carus Chemical Co., Inc. https://law.justia.com/cases/new-jersey/supreme-court/1986/102-n-j-564-0.html
Internal documents obtained by the court revealed that Carus was aware of the risks of using fiber drums and discussed installing a sprinkler system in the warehouse as a preventative measure. Court documents state that when questioned, Carus did not dispute that they knew “the bottom and sides of the fiber drums used for shipping potassium permanganate were combustible.”
In 1975, Carus had switched from metal drums to fiber-paper drums to package potassium permanganate after estimating it could save the company $35,000 annually by using the less-expensive drums. After a series of spontaneous, unexplained fires that occurred at their warehouse in February 1976, Carus decided to stop using fiber-based packaging, but continued to ship potassium permanganate in the remaining drums that were left. On June 13, 1978, two hours after Inversands received a shipment of potassium permanganate, the fiber drums spontaneously combusted and a fire broke out. On May 21, 1986, the N.J. Supreme Court concluded that Carus was guilty of “willful and wanton misconduct.”
At a town hall meeting after the January 2023 fire, in March, Erik Dyas, a certified hazardous materials trainer, questioned Carus about their procedure for cleaning up the spill that led to the fire in January. Dyas said that proper protocol was to contact a HazMat team to clean up the spill and accused Carus of not following proper procedures. Dyas said it costs a minimum of $4,500 each time they call, and if a team must come, it costs an additional $5,000.
Dyas at Town Hall: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YkUaLhpOLoc
OSHA representative, Scott Allen, said that because Carus contested the violation, it will go to the Occupational Safety Review Commission and could take up to a year for a decision. “They will look at it and try to determine whether the violation could stand or not. They’ll have discussions with both parties to try and determine whether the violation is going to stand and whether they should pay all the penalties or not,” said Allen.
Carus was contacted for comment but did not provide one for this article. The company gave a link to a Shaw News article that was published on July 26th, which includes a comment from Lindsay Bliss, vice president of human resources at Carus Chemical.
Carus Serious OSHA Violation, Citation 01001: https://www.osha.gov/ords/imis/establishment.violation_detail?id=1643025.015&citation_id=01001
Carus OSHA Violation, Citation 01002:
OSHA Inspection Detail: https://www.osha.gov/ords/imis/establishment.inspection_detail?id=1643025.015
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