Danny Balduck knew the risks of working at a chemical plant that had a history of disaster. So did his wife.
The Western Electrochemical Co. supervisor had been employed at the rocket fuel/chemical manufacturer for seven years in Henderson, Nev., before it was obliterated by a series of explosions that killed two of his fellow workers.The May 4, 1988, blast at the facility, then known as Pacific Engineering & Production Co. of Nevada, also injured 326 and destroyed several buildings. Damage was listed in the tens of millions of dollars.
Wednesday morning, the company experienced its second fatal explosion in nine years when a handful of employees were apparently trying to clear an obstructed dust collector on the outside of a two-story building.
Something went wrong, a flash fire burst into the air, and an accompanying blast rocked the plant, some 10 miles northwest of this southern Utah town.
Balduck, a 48-year-old Cedar City resident, father of four and stepfather of seven, was one of the workers.
Annette Balduck wasn't surprised her husband was trying to help out when the 8:54 a.m. blast occurred, killing him and injuring four others.
"That's the kind of guy he was," she said Friday before leaving to take care of personal matters at Southern Utah Mortuaries in Cedar City. "He felt part of his job was to show by example. If there was any hint of danger on the job, he wanted to handle it."
Also injured in what officials are calling an "industrial accident" was Ronald Ray Meachum, who was flown to University Hospital in Salt Lake City with life-threatening burns over more than 50 percent of his body.
Meachum, 44, Parowan, remained in critical condition late Friday, a hospital spokesman said. Three others were treated in Cedar City for inhalation problems and released.
Annette Balduck believes the blast was accidental and said the company learned its lessons from the destruction left behind in 1988. Company and fire officials say Wednesday's incident was the first of its kind since the plant relocated to Iron County from Nevada in 1989.
"I know this was an accident. I don't think Danny suspected anything would have gone wrong," she added. "He was so professional at what he did and was never light-minded about anything, least of all the emergency and fire training."
Danny and Annette married about two years ago, the third marriage for both of them. She had seven children and he had four from previous marriages.
"The third time's the charm, as they say," Annette remarked. "We always talked that this was the one that worked for us both. And the kids, we're all family - he considered all of mine as his own."
When asked what she will remember most about her husband, Annette spoke softly after a long pause.
"He kissed me before he left for work and told me he loved me," she said.
She also described Danny as a spiritual man; not religious, but one who lived by the credo of loving your neighbor.
Maybe that's why the Detroit, Mich., native would offer to help people get out of the snow, provide rides, or, in one instance, give away his truck "because someone needed it."
He was also a "super" grandpa, with six grandchildren to spoil, Annette said.
Danny also liked spoiling his wife, as they often traveled to nearby Mesquite, Nev., to get away from it all, she said.
He was seven years away from retirement at the time of his death.
Meantime Friday, officials with American Pacific Corp. in Las Vegas said insurance agents would be probing for a damage estimate over the weekend, and investigators with Utah Occupational Safety and Health had completed their work.
Sue Whitaker, a spokeswoman for American Pacific Corp., said details may be released Monday, but no one cause had been determined as far as she knew.
Eyewitnesses told fire personnel that a mechanism used to gather dust and other contaminants in the production process of ammonium perchlorate apparently became plugged up.
Cedar City Fire engineer Paul Irons said the area where the explosion occurred was at the rear of a building used in the drying process of the chemical.
Prior to being shipped for use in rocket and missile engines, the solid fuel is dried and stored in large water-tight polyurethane canisters or steel drums.
One theory fire officials are looking at is the possibility that carbon molecules in contaminants like dust may have mixed with the ammonium perchlorate, which can burn and provide a point of ignition when in contact with such contaminants.
An official cause was not expected for weeks, said Robert Dreman, a safety health manager for Utah Occupational Safety and Health in Salt Lake City.
But reports from the division show Western Electrochemical Co. was cited for four safety violations in 1994.
In one incident, investigators reported that workers in a building that manufactured the unstable chemical sodium azide had failed to clean a small amount of the substance that has spilled on the ground where it was being collected.
The chemical is used to trigger the release of automobile air bags.
Annual maintenance inspections for all of the "portable fire extinguishers observed plantwide" were also not conducted, according to the report.
Dreman called the violations minor.