1 Injured in Chemical Plant Incident in Austria

An 18-year-old worker at a chemical plant in Linz, Austria, suffered serious burns in a fire Thursday morning.

The in-plant fire brigade at the Borealis section of the Linz Chemical Park quickly brought the situation under control after the first report of fire at 10:45 a.m., local media reports. Twenty-fire responders from the Linz Fire Brigade also deployed to the site.

Emergency personnel transported the injured worker to Kepler University Hospital.

Borealis in Linz owns and operates around three quarters of the chemical park's facilities and currently employs around 1,200 people. The site is home to melamine and phytonutrient production. 

Press accounts disagree on the exact nature of the emergency, referring to it as both a deflagration and a detonation. If combustion propagates outward at subsonic speeds, it is defined as a deflagration. If the explosion moves outward at supersonic speeds, that is a detonation.