PORT WENTWORTH, Ga. — A helicopter dumped 250 gallons of river water Monday onto a gutted sugar refinery where six workers died and two remained missing from an explosion that continued to burn more deeply than officials had suspected.
One of the Imperial Sugar refinery’s three 100-foot storage silos blew up late Thursday, with exploding sugar dust the likely culprit. Dozens of workers were injured. Fire crews couldn’t search for the two missing people because hot spots rendered areas of the plant dangerously unstable.
Sand will be used to take on the 4-day-old fire if water drops don’t work, said Capt. Matt Stanley from the fire department in nearby Savannah.
Mounds of sugary sludge that had solidified in places had to be cut with power tools.
