Explosion at biomass plant kills three

Brilon biomass boiler explosion at Egger Group's chipboard facility in North Rhine-Westphalia, a thermal-oil replacement unit blast, sparked an industrial fire; links drawn to Middletown Energy Center incident, fatalities, and firefighters' response.

An explosion at a biomass plant sited at one of Europe's largest chipboard-manufacturing factories resulted in the deaths of three workers February 5.

The blast occurred at the Brilon chipboard plant in North Rhine-Westphalia in western Germany, where EnBW canceled a coal plant amid wider energy shifts, when a thermal-oil boiler exploded. This is the second fatal power plant-related explosion in less than a week. The deaths in Brilon preceded the massive blast at the new Middletown Energy Center gas-fired power plant in Connecticut at the weekend, as power projects may face more scrutiny in the aftermath, which blew part of the structure away, killing five contractors and injuring a dozen more.

Egger Group, the owners of the Brilon plant, said that a replacement boiler exploded. In a statement, the company said: "The accident occurred in the biomass heating plant on the premises of the Sauerland wood-based material manufacturer. A replacement boiler, which had been recently approved by a certified company… exploded. The cause of the explosion is currently under investigation, and similar cases have prompted a criminal probe in other jurisdictions. Egger is fully supporting these investigations.

Company management has informed the families of the deceased employees about the accident, expressed its condolences and pledged its support. The employees were aged 21, 59 and 62 years."

A separate case saw an employee die in a coal plant explosion earlier this week.

The explosion caused a fire that took 47 fire fighters 90 minutes to bring under control, and similar incidents like a fire at a nuclear plant in Germany have reignited debate. More than a 1,000 people are employed at the plant.

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