A dust explosion caused a South Baltimore plant to evacuate, along with the nearby wastewater treatment plant Tuesday morning, a city fire department spokesman said.
The "small dust explosion," occurred a in venting system at the plant near the Patapsco Waste Water Treatment Plant on Asiatic Avenue, said spokesman Sam Johnson.
No fire was reported and no one was injured, he said, but firefighters responded at 9:45 a.m. and were on standby while the facility's ventilation system was cleared.
The incident occurred at the Synagro facility, which converts sludge from the neighboring Patapsco Waste Water Treatment Plant into pellets for fuel and agriculture, Baltimore Department of Public Works spokesman Jeffrey Raymond said.
The waste water treatment plant was evacuated as a precaution, Raymond said.
"What we had there was a power outage," said Layne Baroldi, director of legislative and regulatory affairs at Synagro.
With the power outage, there was smoldering within the facility where the waste water residuals dry out, and it created a smoke, he said. He said there was never any danger to the community.
Peter Askew, the C.E.O. of nearby USALCO, LLC, an aluminum chemical manufacturing plant, said a health and safety employee at his facility first noticed smoke coming from Synagro and immediately called 911.
Askew said his facility did not have any issues and was not forced to evacuate. He said fire department units remained at the scene Tuesday afternoon.
Correction: Earlier versions of this story misidentified the location of the dust explosion. The department of public works said the explosion occurred at the Synagro facility.
twitter.com/janders5