| An American Crystal Sugar Co. employee was burned by a
viscous boiling liquid Friday morning at the company's East Grand Forks
sugar beet processing plant.
Police said the woman suffered serious burns to her lower abdomen,
flanks of her body, one of her legs and one side of her head and face when
a liquid sugar beet by-product -- an extremely hot molasses-type substance
-- spilled or splashed on her.
Nobody else was injured, police said, and the cause of the accident is
still unknown; it is being investigated internally by company officials.
An employee at the sugar beet facility called 911, police said, just
before 11:30 a.m., telling an East Grand Forks dispatcher a woman was
injured and needed medical assistance right away. East Grand Forks police
arrived at the plant, on the north side of Business Highway 2, and
promptly called fire and rescue when they located the woman inside the
building a short time later.
The unidentified Grand Forks woman was taken to Altru Hospital. Her
condition was not released Friday.
Investigation
An American Crystal Sugar Co. executive said he could not speculate on
the cause of the accident Friday. He acknowledged that a female employee
did, in fact, suffer burns while she was working at the East Grand Forks
plant Friday morning.
"We don't know exactly how (the accident) occurred," company
executive Tom Astrop said from American Crystal Sugar's Moorhead
headquarters Friday afternoon. "It would be speculation if I said any
more."
The company's East Grand Forks shift supervisor, who was on duty when
the woman was burned, said he sent a detailed report on the accident to
Astrop shortly after the incident occurred. However, Astrop said, the
company was not prepared to release that information Friday.
Occupational Safety and Health Administration officials in Bismarck
were unable to be reached for comment Friday.
American Crystal Sugar's East Grand Forks facility is a 76-year-old
sugar beet processing plant. The facility has undergone three major
expansions and several renovations over the last 27 years. The plant
employs 145 year-round employees and hundreds of additional harvest
workers that help process nearly 2 million tons of sugar beets each year.
Molasses produced from sugar beet-pulp at the plant is used as cattle
feed and as a fermentation and binding agent. Much of it is sold to Asian
buyers. |