At least 11 employees were taken to hospitals and residents were urged to take shelter Tuesday after an explosion at a business in Louisville, Kentucky.
The Louisville Metro Emergency Services reported on social media a “hazardous materials incident” at 1901 Payne St., in Louisville. According to officials and online records, the address belongs to a facility operated by Givaudan Sense Color, a manufacturer of food colorings for soft drinks and other products.
Louisville Mayor Craig Greenberg said emergency crews responded to the explosion around 3 p.m. The explosion blew out windows in nearby buildings. News video footage showed an industrial building with a large hole in the roof.
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“The cause of the explosion is unknown at this point,” Greenberg said at a news conference. No one died in the explosion, he added.
Seven people were taken to UofL Hospital. Two of them were in critical condition on Tuesday evening, a hospital spokesman said.
Greenberg said officials spoke with workers at the plant. “They initially made it clear that everything was normal when the explosion happened,” he said.
Tyler McClain, a resident who lives about a mile from the business, told CBS News that he was in his home when he heard a “huge explosion. My whole house shook.”
The Louisville Fire Department said in a post on social platform X that multiple agencies responded to a “large-scale incident.”
Louisville Metro Emergency Services first urged people within a mile of the business to take shelter, but that order was lifted in the afternoon. An evacuation order for the two surrounding blocks around the explosion site was still in effect Tuesday afternoon.
