Primary and Secondary Explosions
•Close to 7:15 p.m. on February 7, 2008, a massive explosion tore the enclosure in the silo tunnel apart.
•In adjacent buildings, rafters and pipes upon which inches of sugar dust rested shook violently.
•Sugar dust dislodged from these surfaces and rained into the air below. As the initial fireball shot through the tunnel and
vented into adjacent buildings, it ignited the falling dust, causing a chain of violent secondary explosions.
•As walls, floors, beams, and conduits collapsed, the dust that had accumulated on top of them poured downward,
refueling and intensifying an inferno that already raged below.
•Security cameras at facilities two miles from the site recorded massive fireballs erupting from the refinery for as long as
fifteen minutes following the initial blast.
•The packing buildings burned for four days before firefighters could fully extinguish the flames. Fires in the storage silos
reached 4000°F and continued burning one week after the primary explosion.
•Eight workers died on the scene, and six more perished at a regional burDn uni amaget. t To Rhiivretr
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six pr wopeorrktyers suffered critical burns
and injuries