Emergency officials in Kanawha County (WV) say the workers at a local pesticide manufacturing plant delayed reporting an explosion, and then didn’t give them sufficient information to help fight the fire and rescue victims. 
The plan is operated by Bayer CropScience in the tiny rural town of Institute northwest of Charleston, and near Interstate 64 and two state highways. One worker died in the explosion and another was injured.
Residents in the western portion the county were told to shelter in place, and traffic on the three highways was halted for a time.
After the incident county emergency management officials said plant officials were deliberately tight-lipped about the nature of the incident, even as fire units arrived at the front gate to handle the incident.
But plan officials said they could only relay information after it had been confirmed by workers.
“We didn’t know what to do,” Petry said. “We couldn’t get anything out of them,” said county emergency director Dale Petry. “We want to protect the community, and we need more information to do that.”
The incident occurred at about 10:35 p.m., but no one called the fire department until 14 minutes later, county officials said.
During that first 911 call a plant worker, “We just have an emergency alarm in progress right now. And we’ll contact you as soon as I get the information.”
The county dispatcher asked the worker what had occurred, and the plant worker said, “Well, I haven’t got instructions as to what to tell everybody yet.”
Three minutes later, a county dispatcher called back the plant worker, at the same moment the worker was reaching for the phone to dial 911 again. This time the plant worker said they needed an ambulance for a burn victim.
The dispatcher again asked for more information. “Well, I can’t give out any information until I get my information.” Fire and EMS units began their response to the plan.
At 11:15 p.m. a Bayer worker dialed 911 to provide an update. “We have an emergency at Bayer CropScience plant, and the only information I can give you is that…you might want to alert the community,” the plant worker said.
The worker continued, “My supervisor informed me to tell you to alert the community that there is an emergency at the plant right now.”
For a third time the county dispatcher asked for more information, and specifically asked if the pesticide Larvin was involved.
But the worker responded, “I’m only allowed to tell you that we have an emergency in the plant.”
Someone from the Bayer plant called the county dispatchers four times over the next 90 minutes, each time saying only that there had been an emergency, that plant teams were responding, and that they would call back with an update.
Finally, at about 1 a.m. a Bayer employee called to provide specific information on what occurred and what substances were involved.
Bayer officials dialed 911 four times between 1:30 a.m. and 6 a.m., repeating that, “We just wanted to keep you informed that our emergency team is still responding to our emergency.”
Institute volunteer fire chief Andre Higginbotham defended Bayer and the information they gave. He was at the plant’s front gate during the incident, he later told a county board, and received regular updates from Bayer’s emergency team.
“We were constantly relaying information back and forth with each other,” he said.
Interestingly, Higginbotham is a Bayer employee.
Records released by the federal National Response Center (NRC) said Bayer didn’t report the incident until 12:37 a.m. It was described as “a release of material due to a fire and explosion in the water deluge system.”
The NRC received two reports previous calls about the Bayer incident, both from citizens and both before Bayer called the agency.
A woman called the NRC at 11:15 p.m. after hearing about the explosion from her mother, who lives in Institute. A man from Vancouver (Wash.) called the NRC at 11:34 p.m. after hearing about the explosion from people in Institute.
In a statement, Bayer officials said the company, “shared all available information with Metro 911 as that information became available over the course of the incident.”
“The transcripts of the calls to Metro 911 which were released today represent only a portion of the communication between Bayer CropScience and emergency response officials during this event,” the statement said.
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