Flash Fire at Georgia Pyrotechnics Plant Injures 1

A worker suffered burns in a flash fire Wednesday morning at a Georgia pyrotechnics plant was airlifted to a hospital in Atlanta.

At about 10:40 a.m. Peach County firefighters were called to Pyrotechnics Specialties in Byron. Fire Chief Jeff Doles told WMAZ that a worker caught in a flash fire was seriously burned on his head, hands, and face.

The worker was making potassium nitrate pellets at the time of the blast, Doles said. There is a chance that the worker suffered inhalation burns as well, he said.

“It’s just a dangerous, dangerous job,” Doles told WMAZ.

The injured worker was treated on the scene by Peach County EMS before being transported by helicopter to Grady Memorial Hospital in Atlanta.

Doles said the fire went out almost immediately without extensive damage to the facility.

According to WMAZ, Pyrotechnics Specialties has paid more than $200,000 in the past four years for violations involving the faulty handling of dangerous chemicals. In2016 a worker was seriously burned in an earlier explosion at the company.