The Nation - News from Aug. 14, 1988
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An explosion ripped through part of an Institute, W. Va., chemical plant that produces a toxic gas, but officials said no one was injured and a fire ignited by the blast burned out about seven hours later. The explosion occurred in a pipe carrying the flammable gas ethylene oxide from a storage tank inside the Rhone-Poulenc Inc. plant, said Jim Lake, the plant’s human resources manager. The explosion occurred in a part of the chemical plant sold to Rhone-Poulenc in 1986 by Union Carbide Corp., which still operates part of the complex. A leak of two other chemicals at the plant in 1985 injured 135 people.
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