ABSTRACT
The relatively new DuPont plant, built in 1957, consisted of several buildings and employed about 200 people. At one end of each building was a concrete "chimney" running across the entire width of the building and open at the top. Extending through the sand mounds into the buildings were tunnels known as "portals" with reinforced concrete walls and roofs. At about 22:32 on September 21, 1965, an explosion occurred at the DuPont explosives production plant near North Bay, Ontario. It quickly became apparent that two employees were missing and presumed killed. The plant manager explained that employees were resigning because they had previously never truly appreciated the enormous amount of potential energy contained in the products they were making. There were two general types of explosives produced at this plant, nitroglycerine (NG) explosives, commonly known as "dynamite," and "blasting agents," which contain no NG but have ammonium nitrate as their principal explosive component.
