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1 dead, 1 hospitalized after ammonia leak in Norwood
The leak happened at a food processing plant on Morgan Drive.
One man is dead and another was hospitalized after an ammonia leak at a food processing plant in Norwood Monday morning.
The Norfolk District Attorney’s Office said in a news release that first responders were called to the scene at 140 Morgan Drive just after 11 a.m.
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The DA’s Office said their preliminary investigation found that two men were working for an outside contractor when the ammonia started leaking nearby.
One of the men, 68-year-old Dighton resident Richard Arguin, was found dead at the scene, the DA’s Office said. The other man was stabilized on scene and taken to Good Samaritan Medical Center in Brockton, before being taken to Massachusetts General Hospital for specialized treatment.
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“While the initial investigation, including review of video surveillance from within the facility, does not provide indications of foul play in the man’s death, the investigation is in its very beginning stages,” the DA’s Office said in the release.
The area of the building investigators need to access to learn more about the situation still contains dangerously high concentrations of ammonia, the DA’s Office said. It will be hours before they can enter the building.
“The information that we have is that this is an incredibly dangerous situation for the fire, Haz-Mat and police personnel responding,” Norfolk District Attorney Michael Morrissey said in the release. “We will be proceeding with this investigation as quickly as safety allows.”
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The DA’s Office did not specify whether investigators have identified the cause of the leak.
The address provided for the food processing plant is listed as Home Market Foods, which was not immediately available for comment Monday evening.
The event was deemed a Tier 2 Haz-Mat incident and is being investigated by state and local police, firefighters, the state fire marshal, and OSHA.
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