Mayor DaSilva: Aspen Aerosol, Facility That Exploded, Did Not Have Proper Building Permit
GoLocalProv News Team
Mayor DaSilva: Aspen Aerosol, Facility That Exploded, Did Not Have Proper Building Permit
East Providence Mayor Bob DaSilva tells GoLocal that the Aspen Aerosol facility, which suffered an explosion on Wednesday night, had “open permits.”
The incident sent 13 workers to the hospital.
GET THE LATEST BREAKING NEWS HERE -- SIGN UP FOR GOLOCAL FREE DAILY EBLASTIn a statement from the Mayor:
Subsequent to the workplace incident that occurred at Aspen Aerogels, the City of East Providence Building Official has become aware that the piece of equipment where the explosion occurred (Oven 5) had open permits that had not been finalized, nor had final inspection.
The Building Official will be conducting a further detailed investigation into this matter with the assistance of the City Solicitor.
A GoLocal investigation released on Thursday found that the company had been cited by both federal and state regulatory agencies for a multitude of health, worker safety, and environmental violations.
Company Refuses to Answer Questions
The company spokesman, Neal Baranosky, has not responded to requests for comments about the facility's previous violations.
EDITOR'S NOTE: An earlier version of this story misspelled DaSilva's name in one reference. We apologize for the error.