8 injured in explosion at Decatur solvent extraction plant

DECATUR, Ill. (September 12, 2023) – An explosion occurred just after 7 p.m. Sunday in Decatur, Illinois, a large city about 180 miles southwest of Chicago. The explosion happened at the east plant of the Archer Daniels Midland Company facility and injured at least eight people with six of them being rushed to the hospital, according to CNN.

The Decatur plant is the company’s North American headquarters and holds more than 4,000 working employees each day, according to the ADM Decatur plant’s website. When the plant was built in 1939 it was the world’s largest solvent extraction plant.

An ADM spokesperson told AP News the company “immediately contacted the Decatur Fire Department, which remains on the scene. Several employees were injured and transported to the local hospital for treatment.” The cause of the explosion is not yet known.

According to the (Decatur) Herald & Review, the fires were burning in a 10-story building and ladder trucks were set up on the west side of the explosion site to assess damage and flow of water into burning areas. In addition, firefighters were able to assess the remaining hot spots in real time from a drone with thermal imaging capabilities that ADM provided.

The department said the efforts to contain the fire was a long, slow process due to the extensive damage. The explosion took place just after 7 p.m. and on-scene fire personnel was not reduced until 2 a.m. Around 11:30 a.m. Monday morning, firefighters were continuing to work with ADM to verify that all fires were out.

This explosion is the second incident at the plant within the last month according to the (Decatur) Herald & Review and the third fire this year. On August 28, a large fire occurred at the plant that required two workers to be rushed to the hospital and in April, three workers were injured following an apparent dust explosion at the company’s west plant.

As of Tuesday morning, four of the six workers have been transferred to Springfield Memorial Hospital and one was sent to a trauma burn unit in Indianapolis to treat his second and third degree burns from the blast.