(isssource) -- Investigators are still searching for the cause of an explosion and fire Thursday at Westlake Chemical Corp.'s plant in Ascension Parish in Geismar, LA, which knocked out a unit making feedstock for a widely used plastic resin.
The fire erupted at 8 a.m. in the Geismar Vinyls Complex while workers were restarting a unit shut down a few days earlier for normal maintenance, said David Hansen, spokesman for Houston-based Westlake Chemical.
No one was injured and the cause of the fire and explosion remains under investigation, said Karen Khonsari, Westlake Chemical's environmental health and safety manager.
⌠All persons are accounted for, and the fire is currently under control, she said during a news conference Thursday morning.
The affected unit makes vinyl chloride monomer, the feedstock for polyvinyl chloride, a commonly used ingredient in a variety of household products, including piping.
Hansen said the unit makes about 550 million pounds of VCM annually, while the plant makes 60 million pounds of PVC.
MRC