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CAI to present its side of the Danversport blast

By Ethan Forman
Staff writer
Published: May 19, 2009

DANVERS — Two-and-a-half years after a massive explosion ripped apart the Danversport neighborhood, the owner of the chemical plant where it started wants to give his company's version of events.

Vincent Sartorelli, president of CAI Inc., said yesterday the company's own investigation into the blast points to a natural gas leak, sabotage or an accidental solvent spill as possible causes.

The company's report challenges the U.S. Chemical Safety and Hazard Investigation Board's findings that an overheated mixing tank led to the Nov. 22, 2006, blast, which destroyed about two dozen homes and businesses, damaged dozens of boats at a nearby marina, and forced 70 families out of their homes, some for months or years at a stretch.

It was the worst community damage the Chemical Safety Board, an independent federal agency that investigates chemical plant mishaps, had seen in its 10-year history. The State Fire Marshal's Office came to a similar conclusion as to the cause.

CAI, a family-owned ink-making business, hired its own investigators, led by engineer Scott Davis. CAI shared the building with Arnel Co., a coatings and paint maker.

"The analysis presented here demonstrates that their proposed scenario could not have occurred and that other potential causes are more likely," CAI's report says.

Davis will present his findings to the public, using 3-D computer modeling on a large screen, in a ballroom at the Sheraton Ferncroft Resort on May 27 at 7 p.m. Sartorelli said residents will be given plenty of time to ask questions.

"We want everybody and anybody to ask any question they want," Sartorelli said.

Davis' unpublished paper, "Lessons Learned From the 2006 Facility Explosion in Danvers, MA," was presented at an American Institute of Chemical Engineers symposium at the end of April.

Sartorelli said Davis was on the ground as soon as he was allowed to view the scene at 126 Rear Water St. and did extensive tests there. Sartorelli said he thinks state and federal investigators jumped to conclusions when they pinned the blame for the accident on CAI.

In its report from a year ago, the Chemical Safety Board said a CAI production manager may have inadvertently left open a steam valve on a 2,000-gallon mix tank on the afternoon of Nov. 21. The mixture of flammable liquid, including heptane, heated overnight, filled the plant with vapors, found an unknown ignition source and exploded around 2:46 a.m., federal investigators said.

CAI's report, by contrast, says "the CAI production manager verified the temperature" of the tank had reached 90 degrees "and turned off the steam valves."

Sartorelli said the production manager also said he had turned off the ventilation fans, another contributing factor federal investigators singled out in their report. Sartorelli said it did not make sense for investigators to believe the manager turned off the fans, while doubting he had turned off the steam heat.

"You can't ask him two different questions and believe what you want to believe," Sartorelli said.

Sartorelli said Davis' report also concludes that even if the steam valve were left on, it would not have produced the kind of explosion that rocked the North Shore that morning.

CAI's report also discusses a history of natural gas leaks in the neighborhood and that many residents reported smelling gas near the plant the day before the explosion. While the facility was not hooked up to gas lines, Scott said there were pathways that could have allowed natural gas to get into the building.

Federal investigators also looked into the possibility of a natural gas leak but ruled it out.

The new findings also mention a trucker parked across the street having seen "a dark-colored pickup truck enter the driveway of the CAI/Arnel plant, and the dome light become illuminated" about 16 minutes before the explosion. The report also mentions "two Arnel employees were recently fired in the months preceding the incident."

Since the explosion, the companies have paid a $7 million settlement — the amount of the companies' insurance — to those who suffered damage, estimated at $30 million. Sartorelli said the company could not defend itself in public because it took Davis this long to complete his findings, with the work costing "hundreds of thousands."

"We had to wait until this comes out," Sartorelli said.

Sartorelli also defended his company's practices, saying it had voluntarily installed a foam sprinkler system in the plant in 2002, and "we had never had a citation against it." The State Fire Marshal's Office brought noncriminal complaints against the company for failure to store flammables properly, failure to obtain a permit to store flammables and combustibles, failure to get a permit for underground storage tanks, and failure to obtain a permit to store propane.

"I'll be curious to see what they say," said state Rep. Ted Speliotis, D-Danvers. "To me, what is important is the federal government investigated this, the state investigated this. They are a third party. They have no vested interested in this."

Staff writer Ethan Forman can be reached at 978-338-2673 or eforman@salem news.com.

If you go

What: CAI presents its findings on the Nov. 22, 2006, Danversport explosion.

When: Wednesday, May 27, 7 p.m.

Where: Sheraton Ferncroft Resort, 50 Ferncroft Road, Northshore Ballroom, Section A

Photos