BELVIDERE, Ill. (AP) — A gas line exploded Monday at a technology plant in
northern Illinois, sending aloft debris that killed a man at a nearby
highway rest area.
The explosion rocked the NDK America Inc. plant in Belvidere, about 70 miles
northwest of Chicago, sending trembles through buildings as far as a mile
away and echoing throughout the community of about 20,000 people.
“It sounded like a traffic accident — a boom,” said Greg Brown, a school
district official. “We thought someone dropped something on the roof. It was
like a little earthquake.”
The man who was killed was pronounced dead at the Illinois Tollway Oasis on
Interstate 90, Illinois Tollway spokeswoman Joelle McGinnis said. Boone
County Coroner Rebecca Wigget identified him as truck driver Ronald
Greenfield, 63, of Chesterton, Ind.
Wigget said Greenfield was walking to his truck at the rest area, which also
has several restaurants, when he was struck by a large piece of flying
debris. She refused to describe the extent of his injuries. An autopsy is
scheduled for Wednesday.
Jim Fealtman, a regional sales manager at NDK America’s office in Webster,
Mass., the company’s other U.S. location, said no one at the Belvidere plant
was injured in the blast. He had no other information.
Three sides of the NDK plant, which makes synthetic crystals for computers,
collapsed in the blast, WIFR-TV in Rockford reported.
The entrance to the plant, which is in a large empty field, was blocked
Monday night. The rest area is visible from the plant.
NDK had moved to a new 55,000-square-foot factory in Belvidere in September
2003 and employs about 30 people, according to Growth Dimensions, the
economic development agency for the city of Belvidere and Boone County.
The building housed four 75-ton “autoclaves” — each 50 feet tall and 3 1/2
feet in diameter — in which the crystals were grown.
Man sentenced to four years in regional drug case
A Crown Point man was sentenced to four years in federal
prison after pleading guilty to use of a telephone in furtherance of a
narcotics violation, the U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Indiana
said.
Thomas J. Kerbs, 51, was also sentenced to one year of
supervised release.
Kerbs is one of the co-defendants in U.S. vs. Kasper et al.,
an extensive cooperative investigation directed by the U.S. Drug Enforcement
Agency, the Porter County Sheriff’s Police, the Porter County Prosecuting
Attorney’s Office, the Valparaiso Police Department, the Kouts Police,
Department, and the Jasper County Sheriff’s Police.
Also assisting were the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and
Firearms, Immigrations and Customs Enforcement, the Indiana State Police,
the Internal Revenue Service, the Indiana Department of Natural Resources,
the Hebron Police Department, and the Lake County HIDTA.
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