Dust explosion at German plant caused the death of one Perstorp employee

Three employees were seriously injured by the dust explosion and fire at the Perstorp plant in Bruchhausen, Germany, on Tuesday September 12. One of them died late on Tuesday evening of his injuries. The situation is stable for the other two employees and they are not in a life-threatening condition.


An initial examination of the damage has been started by the insurers who have representatives on site in Bruchhausen. An internal investigation is also underway to clarify how the accident could have happened.


“How could this happen? is naturally the question that everyone’s asking now and we are working hard to find the cause of the accident. We also hope to learn from this for the future,” says Helmut Anzt, site manager at Site Bruchhausen. “It’s also now important to get the workers together regularly and give them the information available and tell them what’s happening, which we’re doing once a day. We are all devastated over what’s happened and the support we can give each other is very important.” 


Despite the severity of the damage not being clear yet, an initial plan to rebuild the plant is taking shape. The insurance will cover rebuilding costs and income losses.  


“We intend to rebuild the plant to its former condition. The rebuilding work will probably take place in two phases, initially concentrating on one of the two production lines for Penta, which was least damaged,” says Lennart Hagelqvist, Head of Operations. “Careful examination will be carried out in the coming weeks to get a clear picture of what’s needed to get the other production line that produces Penta and calcium formate back to normal.”


Around 130 people work at Perstorp’s plant in Bruchhausen. The plant produces pentaerithritol and calcium formate. Pentaerthritol is used mainly for paints and varnishes, calcium formate is used in feed additives.