Explosion Kills 3, Injures 7 At Paper Mill Owned By Lake Forest Company

DERIDDER, LA — Three men who died in an explosion at a paper mill owned by Lake Forest-based Packaging Corporation of America in DeRidder have been identified, according to the Beauregard Sheriff's Office.

The three men have been named as Jody L. Gooch, 40, William Rolls Jr., 32, and Sedrick Stallworth, 42, contractors who had been working at the plant.

One of the 25-foot-tall tanks full of "foul condensate" at the PCA plant in western Louisiana blew up during annual repair work Wednesday morning, according to the Louisiana State Police.

Seven others were injured in the explosion, and only one remained hospitalized Thursday, police confirmed.

Lake Forest company PCA acquired the DeRidder plant when it purchased Boise in 2013.

PCA issued the following statement early Thursday:

"At approximately 11:10 am CST, Wednesday, February 8th, there was an explosion at our DeRidder, LA paper mill. The incident involved annual repair work being performed on piping in the pulp mill area and resulted in three contractor fatalities. The cause of the incident is under investigation.

Our primary concern is for the safety and well-being of the people working on our site. The top priorities at this time are the notification of families of the deceased contractors and investigation of the incident with authorities.

At the time of the incident, the D1 machine was down for its annual outage and the D3 machine was running and continues to operate. The current assessment indicates that the annual outage work is expected to be delayed by up to one week and the mill will then resume full operation. Further information will be provided, as appropriate, when it becomes available."

Image: Karsun Designs (CC)