Middletown Explosion: Multiple Deaths UPDATE: Press conference

UPDATE (Jim): A press conference has been scheduled for 5:30. Check WTIC 1080 or WTIC.com for updates. News at the top and bottom of the hour.

Initial reports from a breaking news scene can be extremely inaccurate. Even as I write this, numbers are changing.

Initial reports say four people were killed in an explosion at 11 AM this morning at a Middletown Natural Gas Power  Plant still under construction, as well as 100 injured.

The  CT State Police is not giving an exact count on fatalities, but have confirmed there are multiple deaths and 50 injured (Fox is reporting 14 are inured now). According to the Hartford Courant, workers at the plant were in the process of purging the gas lines when the explosion rocked, not just Middletown, but the surrounding area. Here’s a Fox interview with an area resident.

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fRDU3ruZBe8

Fox is reporting that Governor Rell has activated the emergency operations center staffed by the state department of emergency management, the state police and homeland security. Don’t go crazy on this. This is all precautionary. The Courant has some great coverage.

Middletown Deputy Fire Marshal Al Santostefano said at 1:15 p.m. there were “confirmed fatalities” but that he did not know how many. He said there were probably no more than 50 construction workers on the site. Initial reports were that as many as 100 workers may have been at the site.

Eddie Reilly, president of building trades council in Hartford, confirmed today that there were abouy 50 tradesmen on site Sunday morning.

“It was a massive explosion” he said.

The plant, which has been under construction for years, was nearing completion. It was designed to generate electricity by burning natural gas. Neighbors said they believed the explosion was the result of an operating test.

Santostefano said the explosion was related in some fashion to natural gas, but that the cause was still under investigation. He said the explosion appears to have occurred when operators attempted a “blow down” of natural gas pipelines, a procedure that involves the purging of gas from the pipelines.

I will try and stay on top of this. Please, these are our neighbors, just say a quick prayer for the family. Thanks.

UPDATE 2: I just realized the update above seems to be saying initial WTIC reports are inaccurate. IN fact, it’s just poorly worded. Initial reports from a breaking news scene are inaccurate and why the presser is so important. Thus I have changed the wording above.