EAST ALTON, Ill. – A family is now mourning the loss of their loved one after an explosion left one man dead at the Olin Corp. Winchester ammunition plant in East Alton on Thursday afternoon.
Police, fire, and other agencies surrounded the premises of the building, investigating the primer truck. What remains of the truck is almost completely unrecognizable.
The explosion happened just before 4 p.m. at the plant, located on Powder Mill Road.
“There was a loud explosion heard throughout the town,” said East Alton Mayor Darren Carlton.
That loud noise came from a primer truck, which is used to transport gun primer. An employee at the plant said working around chemicals like primer always poses a threat, especially when it’s being transported.
Nearby residents said the sound was heard and felt from miles away.
“I live on the other side of town, and I could feel it from my living room,” Carlton said.
He said instances like this are not common for the area or the plant.
The East Alton Fire Department said there was a fire that happened at Olin not too long ago, but nothing like this.
“You never want to see explosions, fires, things like that,” Carlton said.
The plant worker said his friend was a great guy, who just bought his granddaughter her own horse last Friday. He said his friend arrived at his shift just 20 minutes before the explosion happened.
For resident Dustin Courtouise, he said he didn’t just hear the explosion, he watched the moments a giant cloud of smoke filled the sky.
“We were driving through there and heard a big boom, pushed the van a little bit,” Courtouise said.
He went on to describe how chaotic the scene was.
“We just seen a bunch of people running, we just went up on the sidewalk over some parking blocks on the sidewalk on the sidewalk on the sidewalk on Olin, the mushroom cloud was pretty big,” Courtouise said.
It’s something that left him, and his kids concerned for their safety,
“My kids were scared, we knew we had to get out of there,” Courtouise said.
While Winchester has released a statement, it did not identify the worker killed. Instead, it stated its sadness towards losing a team member, sending condolences to the family who has now lost a loved one.
According to the mayor, they will release more information on what caused the explosion and who the victim was from officials Friday.
As of now, the investigation remains ongoing.
The full statement from Winchester reads as follows:
We are deeply saddened that a Winchester employee was fatally injured this afternoon in an incident involving a company vehicle at the company’s East Alton facility. Our thoughts and prayers are with our employee’s family and coworkers. We are not releasing the employee’s name at this time out of respect for the family. This is a tragedy, and we will conduct a full investigation to determine what happened. The safety of our employees, the community, and our environment is always our top priority.
