At least one person was injured and airlifted to a hospital after an explosion Tuesday at an aerospace and defense plant in Calhoun County, officials said.
The explosion occurred around 9:30 a.m. at an Esterline Defense Technologies facility, Camden Fire Department Chief Robert Medford said. The plant is part of Highland Industrial Park on Arkansas 274 and is near several other defense and aerospace manufacturers.
An Esterline employee said everyone at the plant was accounted for after the explosion.
Dan Noble, a spokesman for the Arkansas Department of Emergency Management, said campus security at the plant reported that the situation was under control.
The Camden Fire Department was not called to the scene, Medford said. The department has an agreement with Esterline but was told that the explosion had been contained, the fire chief said.
An explosion also occurred at the Esterline plant in 2016, seriously injuring two people. A truck and fire crew from the Camden Fire Department were sent to that explosion and were there for "quite some time," Medford said.
Noble initially said Tuesday's explosion took place at an Aerojet Rocketdyne facility, which shares a gate with the Esterline facility, but an Esterline employee confirmed that the blast occurred at the Esterline facility.
Bill Bigelow, a spokesman for Aerojet Rocketdyne, said the plants are in the industrial park along with several other manufacturers and that the various facilities are often confused with one another.
"To the uninitiated, it would appear as if it's all the same facility," he said.
Bigelow said no employees at the Aerojet plant were injured.
"Our thoughts are with our neighbors at Esterline, and we remain ready to assist them as needed," Bigelow said.
NW News on 12/19/2018