Summary

Dust Explosion, Lenoir, North Carolina
2 People Killed
Sunday, November 20, 1994

NFPA Report by Ed Comeau

Summary

On Sunday, November 20, 1994, at approximately 3:41 pm, a series of explosions occurred at a furniture manufacturing facility in Lenoir, North Carolina. There were two fatalities and four injuries as a result of this incident.

The North Carolina Division of Occupational Safety and Health invited the NFPA Fire Investigations Department to participate in the investigation of this incident. On Tuesday, November 29, 1994, Ed Comeau, Chief Fire Investigator, and Martha Curtis, Senior Chemical Specialist, arrived at the facility. Mark Chubb, Fire Code Coordinator from the Southern Building Code Congress International (SBCCI), was on site participating in the investigation as part of the agreement between SBCCI and NFPA.

Prior to the arrival of the NFPA investigation team, the North Carolina State Bureau of Investigations (SBI) had been at the scene and had investigated the incident. SBI has responsibility for investigating all fire-related homicides in order to determine if there has been criminal intent. SBI determined that the nature of the incident was accidental and not criminal.

The incident occurred in the particle board manufacturing portion of the plant. Raw dust was taken in and refined into finished sheets of particle board that was used in the construction of furniture in other portions of the plant. This manufacturing line was the sole source of particle board for the plant's furniture-making operations.

Based on NFPA's site inspection and subsequent analysis, it was determined that there were three potential sources of ignition: a stray piece of metal in a grinding machine that sparked, a leak in an overhead oil line that atomized and subsequently ignited, or a natural gas leak in the vicinity of the thermal transfer unit that was ignited explosively.

Following the initiating event, four explosions occurred throughout the facility. These explosions were caused by dust in the facility that was placed into suspension in the air by each prior explosion. The dust in suspension then came into contact with an ignition source and ignited explosively. It was observed that there were large amounts of dust throughout the facility, and there were minimal efforts to control electrical ignition sources.

Two employees were killed and four were injured. Damage to the facility covered 139,000 square feet. Production will be interrupted for over nine months. An estimate of the property damage is not available. However, much of the building, as well as the production equipment, will have to be replaced.