An AB Specialty Silicones plant near Northwestern Avenue and Sunset Avenue in Waukegan was destroyed following an explosion and fire on May 3, 2019. | Photo: U.S. Chemical Safety and Hazard Investigation Board / ABS Group

AB Specialty Silicones has agreed to follow numerous new procedures and pay a $1.3 million federal fine after an explosion and fire at their Waukegan plant killed four employees in 2019.

The U.S. Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) announced Wednesday it reached a settlement agreement with AB Specialty Silicones LLC, a chemical products manufacturer.

OSHA said an investigation revealed AB Specialty Silicones failed to ensure electrical equipment complied with OSHA standards.

The company also used propane-powered forklifts to transport flammable liquids in areas where employees handled flammable liquids and gases, OSHA said.

As part of the agreement, AB Specialty Silicones has temporarily ceased production and use of silicon-hydride emulsions at all facilities until a new process area for production is designed by an engineering firm.

“This agreement will never replace the four workers lost in this preventable tragedy, but it’s a step in the right direction,” OSHA Regional Administrator Bill Donovan said.

“OSHA will continue to hold AB Specialty Silicones accountable for improving their safety culture by working with industry experts, and both management and employees to develop and continually test safety measures, emergency response procedures and training employees in hazard recognition,” Donovan said.

The administrative law judge overseeing the case before the Occupational Safety and Health Review Commission accepted the parties’ notification of settlement and terminated proceedings on Tuesday.

AB Specialty Silicones has agreed to develop a company-wide safety and health management system, implement an emergency action plan and conduct evacuation drills.

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The company also agreed to provide safety training to employees, require specialty training for management on handling flammable materials, purchase industrial trucks properly rated for handling flammable materials for all facilities and perform comprehensive audits of its occupational health and safety management system certification.

AB Specialty Silicones also will hire third-party consultants to assist with the analysis of electrical classification and hazards for any future or rebuilt facilities and audit those facilities six months after the start of operations.

OSHA will periodically inspect facilities without requiring a warrant and AB Specialty Silicones will pay a $1.3 million penalty in 12 quarterly installments through September 2027.

The U.S. Chemical Safety and Hazard Investigation Board previously released a video giving a detailed recreation of the May 3, 2019, blast at the AB Specialty Silicones plant located near Northwestern Avenue and Sunset Avenue in Waukegan.

AB Specialty Silicones manufactures silicone products used in a wide variety of applications, including personal care and roof coatings. The products are distributed worldwide.

The product EM-652, which is used as a waterproofing agent, was being made using a batch process the night of the explosion, the federal agency said.

An employee mixed two incompatible chemicals after misidentifying a drum of chemicals.

The mixture reacted and produced highly flammable hydrogen gas that ignited.

The ignition caused a “massive explosion” that killed employees Jeff Cummings, 57, of Kenosha, Wisconsin; Byron H. Biehn, 53, of Brighton Township, Wisconsin; Daniel Nicklas, 24, of Beach Park; and Allen E. Stevens Jr., 29, of Salem, Wisconsin.

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The Illinois Attorney General’s office and Lake County State’s Attorney’s Office filed a lawsuit in late May 2019 against the company.

Fire crews work to extinguish the fire after an explosion at a chemical plant in Waukegan on May 3, 2019. | Photo: Jeff Rudolph / Box Alarm Photography

The lawsuit alleged that the fire and explosion at the company’s Waukegan manufacturing facility resulted in an unknown amount of chemicals being released into the air, causing air pollution and threatening land and water near the facility.

The suit also alleged that contaminants released by the explosion and water used to extinguish the fire allowed chemicals to seep into storm sewers, contaminating a wetland and Osprey Lake, located approximately one mile away from the plant.

The Illinois Environmental Protection Agency worked with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to address risks to public health and the environment.

An agreed preliminary injunction entered in October 2019 required AB Specialty Silicones to investigate and evaluate the environmental impact of contaminants released in the explosion and fire.

The injunction also required the company to clean up any contamination with oversight by the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency (IEPA).

The Illinois Attorney General’s office later announced a consent order was approved and entered in Lake County Circuit Court.

The consent order resolved the lawsuit by requiring AB Specialty Silicones to pay all IEPA oversight costs and a civil penalty of $40,000.

The consent order prohibited the company’s Waukegan facility from producing certain hydrogen-releasing silicone emulsion products, including the product that was manufactured when the plant exploded.

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The order also required the company to continue following the previously entered preliminary injunction.

“In many ways, the Waukegan community was forever changed by this explosion, which resulted in contamination of the surrounding environment but even more tragically, the loss of lives,” Illinois Attorney General Kwame Raoul said in 2022.

Fire crews work to extinguish the fire after an explosion at a chemical plant in Waukegan on May 3, 2019. | Photo: Felipe Mujica

The explosion caused more than $1 million in damage and damaged at least five other buildings in the area of the plant.

Nine people were working in the AB Speciality Silicones plant at the time of the explosion.

Of the nine employees, four were found dead in the rubble, three escaped the building but suffered injuries, and two of them escaped without injury.

Cummings, who was a supervisor at the plant, noticed a problem just before the blast and reportedly helped evacuate employees.

He went back inside the building to look for the remaining employees when the explosion occurred.

Stevens had been transported by ambulance to an area hospital and later transferred to the Loyola University Medical Center in Maywood where he died.

Residents throughout Lake County reported feeling and hearing the explosion and some even felt it from more than 15 miles away.

Debris from the explosion covered Sunset Avenue near Northwestern Avenue as over 100 firefighters from throughout Lake County and Cook County were called to the scene.