State Rep: Protocols Worked at Bostik

Emergency response protocols and training, some of which were instituted after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, worked during , state Rep. Bradley H. Jones Jr. said after touring the damage.

Jones, the House Republican leader from North Reading whose district includes the area around the plant, toured the site with state Rep. Brad Hill on Monday. In an interview at his State House office on Tuesday, Jones said public-safety agencies from across the North Shore appeared to have responded by the book Sunday night.

"One of the interesting things for me to observe was ," Jones said. "There were protocols in place on who to call."

Agencies from across the area, including North Reading, Peabody, Lynnfield, North Andover, Danvers, Salem, Beverly and Wenham, . Investigators from the state Department of Fire Services and Department of Environmental Protection arrived shortly thereafter to begin an .

Officials from the federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration were o.

Several area departments also provided resources such as generators and monitoring tools. Jones said those items, many of which were purchased after Sept. 11, 2001, are a benefit to communities in situations such as this.

"People should feel confident that that equipment is worth it," he said.

First responders were called to the scene shortly after 7:30 p.m. Sunday when an explosion tore through a building at the plant, sending four employees to the hospital with non-life threatening injuries. All have since been treated and released.

Jones said he was told that there could have been between 70-90 employees inside the plant during peak operating hours, meaning the incident could have been much worse.

"I got a sense of, A, how incredibly fortunate the people there were not...more seriously hurt or killed, and, B, that it happened at a time when there were not many people there," Jones said.

The cause of the explosion remains under investigation. Jones said it is too early to speculate on the cause and whether lawmakers need to revisit chemical-plant safety regulations.

Jones said he has never heard of any major complaints against the facility from constituents, although two issues that have come up are related to the nearby Ipswich River.

There was a dam on the river at the plant, so that could cause flooding upstream in North Reading when boards were in place on the dam, he said. The plant also had storage tanks on the banks of the river, but it spent $2 million to move them to reduce the chance that materials could seep into the water, Jones said.

The plant also spent a lot of money to purchase land around the facility, which created a buffer between it and surrounding neighborhoods, Jones said. That buffer zone makes the plant significantly different from the one in Danversport that exploded in 2006, which was surrounded by homes, Jones said.

That blast leveled several nearby residences and led state and federal officials to review chemical-plant safety issues. The neighborhood took years to rebuild.

Fire officials reported no damage to homes around the Bostik plant, and no evacuations were required Sunday night.