OSHA finds plant explosion that killed 1 person could have been prevented

By MICHAEL CASEY
Associated Press

BOSTON (AP) — The federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration has found an explosion that killed one worker at a pharmaceutical chemical plant in Massachusetts could have been prevented. The May explosion at the Seqens plant in Newburyport, Massachusetts, killed 62-year-old Jack O’Keefe of Methuen. Video shows most of the roof torn off a building, marking at least the third safety problem at the plant since 2020. The OSHA investigation found that the company “lacked safeguards” in the chemical-making process, including numerous deficiencies in the facility’s safety management program for highly hazardous chemicals. O’Keefe was killed when a pressure vessel exploded.