Criminal Probe Is Launched In Conn. Plant Blast

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=123487712&sc=17&f=1001

Criminal Probe Is Launched In Conn. Plant Blast
by The Associated Press

AP - February 8, 2010

Authorities looking for the cause of an explosion that killed five people at a power plant under construction launched a criminal investigation Monday, saying they could not rule out criminal negligence as the cause.

"If everything went right, we wouldn't all be here right now," Middletown Mayor Sebastian Guiliano said. "There's a point where negligence raises to the level of criminal conduct, and that's what we're investigating."

The powerful explosion blew apart large swaths of the nearly completed 620-megawatt Kleen Energy plant as workers for the construction company O&G Industries Inc. were purging a gas line Sunday morning. The blast tore apart sheet metal that covered the plant's sides and left parts of the complex so unstable that rescuers were unable to work Monday because of the danger of collapse. [more]