TBO.com - TBO is Tampa Bay Online

Sugar Refinery Blast Victims Remembered At Memorial

ADVERTISEMENT

By RUSS BYNUM, The Associated Press

Published: February 24, 2008

SAVANNAH, Ga. - Hard hats were hung in the centers of 10 wreaths of white carnations at a memorial service Saturday, one for each of the Imperial Sugar workers killed in the explosion at the company's nearby refinery.

More than 700 employees of the refinery in Port Wentworth, as well as relatives and friends of the victims of the Feb. 7 blast, gathered at the Savannah Civic Center.

"You can ask anybody in Savannah or in the community around Port Wentworth; it definitely affects everybody," Richard Ussery, who has worked in the refinery for 17 years, said as he hugged and greeted friends leaving the memorial.

For Antonio Washington, who drives a forklift in the refinery warehouse, it was a chance to say goodbye to two friends he last saw the night of the explosion.

He broke a toe when the explosion hurled him off his forklift.

"I'd like to remember everybody like they were," said Washington, who couldn't bring himself to attend either man's funeral. "I think about them every day."

The memorial service came a day after the toll climbed to 10 with the death of an employee who had been severely burned.

That worker's name has not been released.

"They were men of faith, they were good sons, they were loving husbands and caring fathers," said John Sheptor, president and CEO of Imperial Sugar.

"We will miss you and we will remember you for the rest of our lives," he said.

Sheptor praised firefighters, paramedics and police who swarmed to the 90-year-old refinery, which burned for a week after the explosion.

He also singled out several refinery employees for praise. Sheptor said that two of them were brothers who rushed back into the burning building to save an uncle, and two other employees scrambled to shut off a large boiler operating dangerously close to the flames and the firefighters who were working to extinguish it.

Shutting down the boiler potentially saved "hundreds of lives - all of our emergency response personnel, the injured and many of our employees who were gathered just at the foot of that boiler," Sheptor said.

The company said those workers wished to remain anonymous.

Investigators say the explosion was fueled by airborne sugar dust, but they have not yet determined what ignited the dust.

Thirteen burn victims remain in critical condition at the Joseph M. Still Burn Center at Doctors Hospital in Augusta. Two others are listed in serious condition at the hospital.

Share this:

Loading Comments...

Email Print

ADVERTISEMENT