A ‘Thanksgiving miracle’

A blast at a chemical plant in Danvers on November 22, 2006 -- the day before Thanksgiving -- damaged two dozen houses, left nearly 400 people homeless, and sent glass and rubble raining down, but there were no deaths and few injuries.

LATEST NEWS

Federal report: Danvers 2006 explosion could have been prevented

The Danversport factory explosion that destroyed a neighborhood could have been prevented if one company involved had better safeguards inside its facility, according to a report released today. (Boston Globe, 1 p.m.)
Past coverage

Final Danversport blast report may serve as model for nation

A final report on the chemical explosion in Danversport 18 months ago contains recommendations to improve rules governing the storage of flammable materials that could serve as a guideline for communities across the country, federal investigators said. (Boston Globe, 5/11/08)
Globe Editorial

A helpful chemical reaction

THE MASSIVE explosion in a paint and ink factory that leveled a Danvers neighborhood in November 2006 revealed perilous gaps in the regulation and inspection of chemical processing plants across the state. Now it falls to state lawmakers to address the incendiary situation. (Boston Globe, 5/5/08)

Requirements for chemical storage has Danvers firms baffled

About half of the 35 businesses allowed to store oil, paint, and other chemicals did not have a permit from the Danvers Fire Department when a new inspection program started last month. (Boston Globe, 4/27/08)

Danvers factory faulted in blast

The Danvers factory that exploded in November 2006 had been storing at least twice the amount of flammable chemicals than had been authorized by the town, according to a report released by the state fire marshal yesterday. (Boston Globe, 3/12/08)

After Danvers blast, she answered the bell

She wears no badge or gear. She doesn't slide down the pole or drive a fire truck. (Boston Globe, 11/22/07)

A year after the blast, Danversport is on the road to recovery

Alan and Andrea Farrell were asleep when an ink and paint factory exploded into a fireball, turning the night sky orange. (Boston Globe, 11/18/07)

Blast site may get a boost

An attempt to revitalize industrially zoned areas on the waterfront and in other parts of Danvers is stirring debate. (Boston Globe, 8/12/07)

Victims form trust for settlement

Rather than filing their own lawsuits, more than 200 homeowners and businesses have joined a court-supervised trust empowered to negotiate a group settlement against any party found responsible for the factory explosion last November that damaged or destroyed their properties in Danversport. (Boston Globe, 8/12/07)

Group home joins Danversport residents rebuilding lives

Peter Muthua fell asleep on the living-room couch during his overnight job supervising four developmentally disabled men at a group home on Bates Street. (Boston Globe, 7/15/07)

Storage permit is surrendered, but issues linger

The owners of an ink and paint factory in Danversport that exploded last November have given up a license to store chemicals there, but a public hearing on Tuesday to possibly revoke the license will go forward, town officials said. (Boston Globe, 7/15/07)

Danvers firms forgo license for chemicals

The owners of an ink-and-paint factory that exploded in November, severely damaging 270 houses and businesses, have agreed to give up their license to store thousands of gallons of chemicals on the site, effectively eliminating any chance that they will rebuild there soon, the town manager said yesterday. (Boston Globe, 7/11/07)

(Image by Pictometry)

(David L. Ryan / Globe Staff)
Reader Adam Serafin of Cambridge sent in the photo on the left taken from a Pictometry image to show how the Danvers explosion site looked before the blast. The photo below on the right was taken the afternoon after the blast by David L. Ryan of the Boston Globe staff.

OSHA fines firms in Danvers blast

Federal officials proposed $32,100 in safety fines for two companies operating in the Danvers chemical plant that blew up in November in one of the state's most devastating industrial mishaps. (Boston Globe, 6/8/07)
GLOBE NORTH

Up from the rubble

Six months after a fiery explosion ripped apart Danversport, a new neighborhood is rising. Homes have been knocked flat. Modular houses have been dropped into place from cranes. Buzzing saws and banging hammers echo across two narrow side streets, joined like a horseshoe. (Boston Globe, 5/20/07)

Plant faulted in Danvers blast

The plant that exploded in November repeatedly violated safety regulations for the handling of flammable chemicals, and local, state, and federal agencies with oversight of the facility failed to inspect it, federal investigators said yesterday. (Boston Globe, 5/10/07)

Fearing blasts, state to inspect small plants

In hopes of preventing the kind of explosion that leveled a Danvers neighborhood last November, state officials outlined yesterday the first federally approved plan to inspect small chemical and hazardous waste plants that they said could pose "a significant danger to populations in the event of a problem or accident." (Boston Globe, 5/8/07)

'The Big Boom'

A fifth-grader who witnessed the destruction of a bakery where she had bought gingerbread cookies with her grandmother wrote a poem describing the store where "boards stand where windows once were." (Boston Globe, 4/29/07)

Evaporating solvents from tank
eyed as cause of Danvers blast

Federal investigators said yesterday that a heated mixing tank filled with 2,000 gallons of printing ink ingredients, including flammable solvents, may have evaporated and led to an explosion Nov. 22 that leveled much of the surrounding Danvers neighborhood. (Boston Globe, 2/7/07)

Build-up of chemical vapors cited in blast

Federal investigators have reached the preliminary conclusion that the build-up of chemical vapors inside a paint and ink factory in Danvers was the fuel that ignited a massive explosion in November that essentially destroyed a neighborhood in seconds, officials said yesterday. (Boston Globe, 2/3/07)

Tax credit eyed for Danvers victims

Governor Deval Patrick announced yesterday that his first piece of legislation would offer tax relief to the Danversport families whose houses were damaged or destroyed in the Nov. 22 chemical explosion. (Boston Globe, 1/25/07)

'It's good to be home'

As soon as he entered the doors at the New England Home for the Deaf, resident Daniel Kerr let go of his walker and punched his fist in the air. (Boston Globe, 1/23/07)

'Civil Action' attorney to speak to neighbors

Later this month, the attorney who became famous for fighting on behalf of residents of a Woburn neighborhood made sick by toxic waste will speak to Danvers residents whose neighborhood was devastated last year by a chemical explosion. (Boston Globe, 1/18/07)

New zoning urged for Danvers blast area

For more than 200 years, industry and people have coexisted in Danversport . Now, two months after a paint factory blew apart and destroyed or damaged dozens of homes there, some residents are saying they no longer feel safe with industry in their backyards. (Boston Globe, 1/14/07)

Danvers boaters, marina
face millions in damage

Somehow, Joe Branzetti can still smile, even as he stands among the remnants of his boat-brokering business at the Liberty Marina, located next to the factory destroyed last month by a massive chemical explosion. (Boston Globe, 12/8/06)
Globe North

2 more sites face leveling; US aid arrives

Wrecking balls are set to hit Liberty Marina and the Concord Oil gas station, two of several businesses damaged last month by a fiery blast at an ink-and-paint factory on the Waters River that left Danversport in shambles. (Boston Globe, 12/7/06)

Lawmakers ready aid for Danvers

State lawmakers have drawn up plans to provide $2 million in disaster aid to Danvers, which has been reeling from repair and overtime costs stemming from a chemical plant explosion two weeks ago. (Boston Globe, 12/6/06)

US considers subpoenas
in Danvers explosion probe

A federal agency investigating the Danvers chemical explosion said yesterday that one company is refusing to cooperate with their inquiry and could soon be facing federal subpoenas for names of employees and internal records on chemicals used in the plant. (Boston Globe, 12/5/06)
Globe North

Bell signals sound of relief

On the Waters River, across from the scene of the fiery blast that had ripped through Danversport, James P. Tutko proclaimed himself the "proudest fire chief in the nation." (Boston Globe, 12/3/06)

US says force of explosion was blunted

People probably would have died if the massive industrial explosion in Danvers last week had not occurred in the middle of the night when residents were protected in their beds, according to an initial assessment released yesterday by federal investigators. (Boston Globe, 12/2/06)

Danvers residents get help from US

Homeowners in Danvers affected by last week's massive chemical plant explosion will be eligible for loans of up to $200,000 with interest rates as low as 3 percent now that the blast site has officially been declared a federal disaster area. (Boston Globe, 12/1/06)
Globe North

After the blast

Long before the explosion that shook Andrea Daley from her bed last week, the retired Danvers schoolteacher saw trouble when she looked at the industrial buildings sitting alongside the Cape-style and two-decker houses in her Danversport neighborhood. (Boston Globe, 11/30/06)

Authorities call Danversport explosion
an accident, not a crime

One week after a small chemical plant exploded and destroyed or damaged dozens of houses in the Danversport neighborhood, authorities said yesterday they have concluded that the detonation was an accident, not a crime. (Boston Globe, 11/30/06)

Gap cited in hazardous-waste oversight

Environmental regulators never inspected hazardous materials storage practices at the small Danvers chemical plant that exploded last week because the state and federal governments focus their enforcement efforts on larger facilities. (Boston Globe, 11/29/06)

Danvers blast still not linked
to a criminal act, officials say

As five more families returned to homes damaged by last week's chemical explosion, the state fire marshal said yesterday that no evidence had yet been uncovered to link the blast to criminal activity. (Boston Globe, 11/28/06)

Heading back home in Danvers

Days after hundreds fled a fiery blast at a neighborhood chemical plant, a trickle of families returned to their homes yesterday , even as town officials continued grappling with a federal board over the scope of its power to investigate the explosion. (Boston Globe, 11/27/06)

Dispute besets blast probe

A turf war erupted between state and federal investigators yesterday as state officials began to dig for clues in the vast pile of twisted, soot-stained metal left by an explosion at a chemical plant early Wednesday. (Boston Globe, 11/26/06)

Danvers begins assessing damage

The massive explosion that flattened a Danvers chemical plant caused such extensive damage to 10 homes that they will have to be razed, officials said yesterday, as residents lined up for aid and struggled to piece together their lives. (Boston Globe, 11/25/06)

Search to start for clues in blast

Fire investigators will begin the daunting task today of combing through the remnants of a Danvers chemical plant, searching for clues that might indicate what triggered the devastating explosion that left hundreds homeless for Thanksgiving Day. (Boston Globe, 11/24/06)

No deaths, few injuries as Danvers blast
levels plant, leave hundreds homeless

An explosion that reverberated for miles yesterday reduced a chemical plant to an ashen heap, causing such devastation that officials fear they may never be able to pinpoint the cause. (Boston Globe, 11/23/06)
Thanksgiving