GOEX Plant Explodes Again

[Karl/Pa.]

Goex operations put on hold for 3 to 6 months

Vickie Welborn

By Vickie Welborn

vwelborn@gannett.com

DOYLINE — Twenty-seven full-time and two part-time employees of Goex Inc. will stay on the payroll as the black powder company recovers from a fire and small explosion Saturday.

President Mick Fahringer said operations at the plant — the only producer of black powder in North America — will be on hold for three to six months during the repair process. In the interim, employees will be used in the cleanup and rebuilding effort.

No one was at the plant, located at Camp Minden, when the explosion happened around 9:30 p.m. Saturday. Crews work 10-hour days Monday through Friday.

The Minden Fire Department, Webster Parish Fire District No. 7 and Camp Minden's volunteer fire department responded to the fire. It was about six hours before officials felt it was safe enough for fire crews to begin working around the explosives to begin putting out the fire, Minden Fire Chief T.C. Bloxom Jr. said Sunday.

The cause of the fire and "very minor explosion" are still under investigation, Fahringer said.

Bloxom said the fire was called in as a grass fire that spread to a building where the explosion occurred.

"It's way too early to tell" exactly what happened, Fahringer said. "That's the real baffler — nobody was here."

The explosion, which was ignited from residue left in the building, Fahringer said, destroyed equipment in the corning mill that is used to granulate black powder. It's an "integral part" of the black powder production process.

The equipment, not the building, will have to be replaced, Fahringer said.

Neighbors reported hearing the explosion. And it's not the first time.

This is the fifth reported explosion at the plant since it moved its operations from Pennsylvania to the former Louisiana Army Ammunition Plant in 1997. An explosion in November 1998 killed a worker. Another was severely burned in a flash fire and explosion in January 2000. Two workers were hurt and $2.5 million in damage was reported in an explosion in 2001.

Even with Goex out of production for the next few months, the supply of black powder to markets throughout the nation should not be affected.

"We keep a large inventory for such large mishaps as this," Fahringer said.

[Aughnanure]

Let's all be thankful that it wasn't worse.

Not only for black powder shooters but, particularly, for the workers at the plant.