COLUMBUS, Ohio — The U.S. Chemical Safety and Hazard Investigation Board said Monday that Yenkin-Majestic/OPC Polymers has failed to implement — or even substantively respond to — any of the five safety recommendations the board issued after its investigation of the April 2021 explosion and fire that killed one worker and injured eight others at the company’s Columbus resin plant.
The board said it first transmitted the recommendations to the company in a letter dated Dec. 4, 2023, followed up with another letter in February of this year and a third in September, and has received no response to any of them.
“Yenkin-Majestic/OPC Polymers’ continued unresponsiveness and failure to implement the CSB’s safety recommendations seems to demonstrate a serious disregard for the safety of the company’s workers and is especially disturbing in light of the company’s recent guilty plea,” said Stephen Klejst, the board’s executive director of investigations and recommendations.
“This deadly incident should never have happened, and the safety recommendations are intended to help prevent a catastrophic event like this from happening again,” CSB Chairperson Steve Owens said. “Unlike Yenkin-Majestic/OPC Polymers, most companies willingly implement the safety recommendations from the CSB’s investigations.”
The board’s statement came six weeks after Yenkin Majestic Paint Corporation pleaded guilty on Sept. 1 in U.S. District Court in Columbus to negligent endangerment in connection with the explosion. No sentence in the case has been announced.
The explosion occurred shortly after midnight on April 8, 2021, at the company’s plant at 1920 Leonard Ave. According to the board’s investigation, a mixture of flammable naphtha solvent vapors and resin liquid became pressurized inside a kettle and escaped through the seal of a manway cover that had been installed about three months earlier. The board found the manway was not properly designed, constructed or tested, and that the company had not followed basic pressure vessel integrity practices.
The vapors formed a flammable cloud that spread through the plant and ignited, causing an explosion and a fire that burned for roughly 11 hours, the board said. More than 100 firefighters responded. The company estimated the damage at more than $90 million, and the severely damaged resin plant was later demolished.
Wendell Light, 44, a press room supervisor, died from burns and smoke inhalation after being found beneath rubble inside the plant, according to the board. Eight other employees were taken to area hospitals with injuries that included third-degree burns and limb fractures, and one employee required a leg amputation after being crushed under collapsed debris.
Investigators found the company had no adequate emergency preparedness plan, its emergency training was deficient, employees were not given adequate notice to evacuate because of a lack of audible and visual alarms, and the company did not require employees to wear flame-resistant uniforms, the board said.
The board’s five recommendations called on the company to update its mechanical integrity procedures and apply engineering standards to all pressure vessels in highly hazardous chemical service, including low-pressure vessels; install flammable gas detectors that alert plant personnel to a hazard; demonstrate the use of the hierarchy of controls in future resin plant designs; require flame-resistant uniforms in operating areas that process flammable chemicals; and update employee training materials on the requirement for and purpose of protective equipment.
Separately, the U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration cited the company in October 2021 for two willful and 33 serious safety violations and proposed $709,960 in penalties, placing the company in its Severe Violator Enforcement Program. The company contested the citations.
Yenkin-Majestic, a family-owned company founded in 1920, sold its consumer paint business and its industrial coatings business in 2022. The paint corporation ceased operations and dissolved on Aug. 18 of this year after selling its remaining operating businesses, according to the U.S. Department of Justice. OPC Polymers continues as a stand-alone company, and Andrew O. Smith, the company’s president and CEO when the recommendations were sent, has been executive chairman of OPC Polymers LLC since early 2023, according to the board.
The safety board does not issue citations or fines. It investigates chemical incidents and makes safety recommendations to companies, industry organizations and regulatory agencies.
