Major Explosion spews fire cloud over Kansas City*

07 Feb 2007 21:56:29 GMT
Source: Reuters

KANSAS CITY, Feb 7 (Reuters) - A  Major explosion and massive fire at a
chemical storage facility near downtown Kansas City forced an evacuation
and closed nearby roads, authorities and local media reports said on
Wednesday.

The fire engulfed a CHEMCENTRAL Corp. plant but all the plant's
employees were accounted for and there were no known injuries, said
Missouri Emergency Management spokesman Susie Stonner.

The company stores and distributes many chemicals, some of which are
highly volatile and flammable, she said.

"We don't know what caused it," Stonner said.

A huge black plume of smoke from the fire formed a black cloud that
appeared to be dropping ash on parts of the city, witnesses said.

A one-mile (1.6 km) area surrounding the stricken facility in an
industrial area near the Missouri River was evacuated, and a bridge
linking downtown with Kansas City's northern suburbs was closed.

Witnesses told the Kansas City Star newspaper the explosion shook windows.

"Windows shook, the building shook, like a bomb from a war zone. I hit
the ground. Other guys ducked. There was about a 100-foot (30-meter)
fireball in the sky," Mike Colmen of a nearby trucking company told the
newspaper.

An operator at the company's Chicago headquarters could not say what
chemicals were stored at the plant. The company, which is privately
held, is one of North America's largest chemical distributors and has
annual sales of around $1.3 billion.

(Additional reporting by Andrew Stern in Chicago)