LOUISVILLE, Ky. (AP) — At least 11 employees were taken to hospitals after an explosion Tuesday at a Louisville, Kentucky, plant caused a partial collapse of the building and blew out windows in nearby homes and businesses.
The explosion occurred around 3 p.m. at Givaudan Sense Colour, which produces colorings for food and drinks. Firefighters rescued and evacuated many people from the building, including some with life-threatening injuries, Louisville Mayor Craig Greenberg said in a statement Tuesday night.
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This image taken from video from WHAS 11 News shows damage after an explosion injured multiple employees at Givaudan Sense Color, Tuesday, Nov. 12, 2024, in Louisville, Ky. (WHAS 11 News via AP)
This image taken from video from WHAS 11 News shows damage after an explosion injured multiple employees at Givaudan Sense Color, Tuesday, Nov. 12, 2024, in Louisville, Ky. (WHAS 11 News via AP)
Members of the Louisville Fire Departments check their gear as they prepare to enter Givaudan Sense Colour following an explosion at the facility in Louisville, Ky., Tuesday, Nov. 12, 2024. (AP Photo/Timothy D. Easley)
Members of the Louisville Fire Departments check their gear as they prepare to enter Givaudan Sense Colour following an explosion at the facility in Louisville, Ky., Tuesday, Nov. 12, 2024. (AP Photo/Timothy D. Easley)
Members of the Louisville Metro Police and Louisville Fire Departments block access to Givaudan Sense Colour following an explosion at the facility in Louisville, Ky., Tuesday, Nov. 12, 2024. (AP Photo/Timothy D. Easley)
Members of the Louisville Metro Police and Louisville Fire Departments block access to Givaudan Sense Colour following an explosion at the facility in Louisville, Ky., Tuesday, Nov. 12, 2024. (AP Photo/Timothy D. Easley)
Greenberg said officials have accounted for everyone who was working at the plant at the time.
The cause was under investigation. Greenberg said officials spoke to employees inside the plant and they “initially conveyed that everything was normal activity when the explosion occurred.”
Patrick Livers lives in a neighborhood immediately across the railroad tracks from the plant. He was at work when his mother, who had picked up his children from school and was bringing them home, called to say his home had been damaged by the explosion.
“I was like, ‘What are you talking about?’ Then she showed me the video. I was like, ‘Oh you’ve got to be kidding me,” he said.
Livers said no one was home at the time. He said the explosion blew out windows up and down his street.
“The house is still standing. It’s just structural damage. If it was on a wall, it’s on the floor,” he said. “All the neighbors’ windows busted out, doors blown in. It looked like a small tornado went off inside the house.”
Steve Parobek was at work when the blast blew out the kitchen window in his apartment a block from the plant. He arrived home and found his cat safe and used two pizza boxes and some duct tape to cover his window as temperatures dropped steadily Tuesday night.
A Givaudan spokesperson didn’t immediately respond to an email seeking comment Tuesday night. No one answered the phone at the company’s Louisville office, and a man who answered at the Port Washington, Wisconsin, office declined to comment.
The University of Louisville Hospital treated seven of the injured and two were in critical condition, said Dr. Jason Smith, chief medical officer for University of Louisville Health. Hospital officials activated decontamination procedures for the victims, a process that involves removing their clothing and all the chemicals on them and then taking them for evaluation and treatment, Smith said.
Louisville Fire Chief Brian O’Neill said air monitoring began immediately after the explosion and “nothing at this point has ever shown any type of chemical problems in the air in this entire region.” O’Neill also said that fire officials “don’t precisely know yet exactly what types of leaks may happen or may be ongoing,” but he urged residents to stay calm.
The Louisville Fire Department was leading the investigation as of Tuesday night with help from state and federal partners. A reconstruction team from Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives was headed to Louisville to help determine the cause of the explosion.
In April 2003, an explosion at the same location killed a worker at a caramel-coloring plant owned by D.D. Williamson & Co. Givaudan acquired the plant from D.D. Williamson in 2021.
Federal investigators determined a pressure relief valve on a tank had been removed when the company moved the tank to its Louisville plant in 1989. The tank exploded because there was no relief valve, according to a report from the Chemical Safety Board.
Associated Press journalists John Raby and Bruce Schreiner contributed to this report.
This image taken from video from WHAS 11 News shows damage after an explosion injured multiple employees at Givaudan Sense Color, Tuesday, Nov. 12, 2024, in Louisville, Ky. (WHAS 11 News via AP)
This image taken from video from WHAS 11 News shows damage after an explosion injured multiple employees at Givaudan Sense Color, Tuesday, Nov. 12, 2024, in Louisville, Ky. (WHAS 11 News via AP)
Members of the Louisville Fire Departments check their gear as they prepare to enter Givaudan Sense Colour following an explosion at the facility in Louisville, Ky., Tuesday, Nov. 12, 2024. (AP Photo/Timothy D. Easley)
Members of the Louisville Fire Departments check their gear as they prepare to enter Givaudan Sense Colour following an explosion at the facility in Louisville, Ky., Tuesday, Nov. 12, 2024. (AP Photo/Timothy D. Easley)
Members of the Louisville Metro Police and Louisville Fire Departments block access to Givaudan Sense Colour following an explosion at the facility in Louisville, Ky., Tuesday, Nov. 12, 2024. (AP Photo/Timothy D. Easley)
Members of the Louisville Metro Police and Louisville Fire Departments block access to Givaudan Sense Colour following an explosion at the facility in Louisville, Ky., Tuesday, Nov. 12, 2024. (AP Photo/Timothy D. Easley)
WASHINGTON (AP) — Donald Trump made a victor’s return to Washington on Wednesday, visiting the White House for a lengthy meeting with President Joe Biden and committing to a straightforward transition of power as the president-elect moves quickly to build out his new administration.
Sitting in front of a crackling fire in the Oval Office, the former rivals shook hands as reporters looked on. Biden called Trump "Mr. President-elect and former president” before settling on “Donald.”
“Congratulations,” the Democrat told the Republican. “I look forward to having, like they said, a smooth transition,” Biden said. “Welcome. Welcome back.”
Trump replied, “Thank you very much," saying that “politics is tough. And it’s, in many cases, not a very nice world. But it is a nice world today, and I appreciate it very much.”
He said the transition between the outgoing and incoming administrations "will be as smooth as it can get and I very much appreciate that, Joe.” Trump, who has long disputed his 2020 election loss to Biden, did not invite Biden to the White House during the transition four years ago.
The scene put in stark relief the remarkable political rebound for Trump, who departed Washington in January 2021 as a diminished, politically defeated leader after helping incite a mob of his supporters to attack the Capitol. Today, he is preparing to come back to power with what he and his GOP allies see as a mandate for governance.
Neither he nor Biden answered questions shouted by the media after their brief remarks. At one point, Biden looked at Trump, who moved his head to the side and gave a small shrug but did not respond.
Each was joined by his chief of staff for the private meeting that is a traditional part of the peaceful handoff of power, but a ritual that Trump declined to participate in four years ago after losing to Biden.
First lady Jill Biden greeted Trump upon his arrival at the White House and gave him a handwritten letter of congratulations for his wife, Melania Trump, who did not make the trip to Washington. The letter also expressed the first lady's team’s readiness to assist with the transition.
As Trump met with Biden, Trump sent out a fundraising email to supporters saying that he "is inside the White House right now conducting a very important meeting.”
Trump had flown from Florida in the morning, joining up with billionaire Elon Musk for a morning session with House Republicans. That discussion came as Trump prepares for a potentially unified Republican government and sweep of power.
Back in Washington for the first time since his election victory, Trump told the GOP lawmakers, “It’s nice to win.”
He received a standing ovation from House GOP members, many of whom took cellphone videos of Trump as ran through their party's victories up and down the ballot, in what would be, under the constitutional limits, his final presidential election.
“I suspect I won’t be running again unless you say he’s good we got to figure something else,” Trump said to laughter from the lawmakers.
The Constitution's 22nd Amendment prevents presidents from running for a third term.
House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., said of Trump's arrival, “He is the comeback king.”
“We owe him a great debt of gratitude," Johnson said.
Trump's reemergence comes amid Republican congressional leadership elections — with the potential for the president-elect to place his imprint on the outcome. He endorsed Johnson's return to the speaker's office with the president-elect saying he is with Johnson all the way, according to a person familiar with the remarks but not authorized to publicly discuss the private meeting.
Musk joining Trump on the return to Washington comes after the Tesla and SpaceX CEO has been spending much of his time at Mar-a-Lago, Trump's Florida estate, and participating in discussions as the incoming Trump administration prepares to transition from Biden's.
Trump has named Musk to a government efficiency advisory role in his incoming administration. Some close to Trump and his team now see Musk as the second most influential figure in Trump’s immediate orbit, after Susie Wiles, the campaign manager who is Trump's incoming chief of staff.
After his election win in 2016, Trump met with President Barack Obama in the Oval Office and called it “a great honor." But he soon was back to heaping insults on his predecessor.
Biden has continued to lie about widespread voter fraud that did not occur. In addition to not inviting then-president-elect Biden to the White House, Trump left Washington without attending the inauguration. It was the first time that had happened since Andrew Johnson skipped Ulysses S. Grant's swearing-in 155 years ago.
Biden insists that he'll do everything he can to make the transition to the next Trump administration go smoothly. That's despite having spent more than a year campaigning for reelection and decrying Trump as a threat to democracy and the nation’s core values. Biden then bowed out of the race in July and endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris to succeed him.
Traditionally, as the outgoing and incoming presidents meet in the West Wing, the first lady hosts her successor upstairs in the residence, But her office said Melania Trump wasn't attending, saying in a statement that “her husband’s return to the Oval Office to commence the transition process is encouraging, and she wishes him great success.”
When Trump left Washington in 2021, even some top Republicans had begun to decry his role in helping incite the mob that overrand the Capitol mere weeks earlier. But his win in last week's election completes a political comeback that has seen Trump once again become the unchallenged head of the GOP.
Wednesday's trip was not the first time Trump has returned to the Capitol area since the end of his first term, though. Congressional Republicans hosted Trump over the summer, as Trump was again solidifying his dominance over the party.
In last week's election, Republicans wrested the Senate majority from Democrats and are on the cusp of keeping control of the House, are in the midst of their own leadership elections happening behind closed doors Wednesday. Johnson has pulled ever-closer to Trump as he worked to keep his majority — and his own job with the gavel.
It's unclear whether Trump will also visit the Senate, where Republicans chose Sen. John Thune of South Dakota in a three-way race to replace outgoing GOP leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky. Trump's allies were pushing GOP senators to vote for Sen. Rick Scott of Florida.
Associated Press writers Jill Colvin in New York and Farnoush Amiri, Darlene Superville and Kevin Freking contributed to this report.
President Joe Biden meets with President-elect Donald Trump in the Oval Office of the White House, Wednesday, Nov. 13, 2024, in Washington. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)
President Joe Biden meets with President-elect Donald Trump in the Oval Office of the White House, Wednesday, Nov. 13, 2024, in Washington. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)
Elon Musk, left, sits with Kelly Johnson, wife of House Speaker Mike Johnson of La., as President-elect Donald Trump speaks at a meeting of the House GOP conference, Wednesday, Nov. 13, 2024, in Washington. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)
President Joe Biden meets with President-elect Donald Trump in the Oval Office of the White House, Wednesday, Nov. 13, 2024, in Washington. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)
President Joe Biden meets with President-elect Donald Trump in the Oval Office of the White House, Wednesday, Nov. 13, 2024, in Washington. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)
President-elect Donald Trump speaks during a meeting with the House GOP conference, Wednesday, Nov. 13, 2024, in Washington. (Allison Robbert/Pool via AP)
President-elect Donald Trump speaks during a meeting with the House GOP conference, Wednesday, Nov. 13, 2024, in Washington. (Allison Robbert/Pool via AP)
President-elect Donald Trump arrives at Joint Base Andrews, Md., Wednesday, Nov. 13, 2024. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)
President-elect Donald Trump, escorted by House Speaker Mike Johnson of La., arrives for a meeting with the House GOP conference, Wednesday, Nov. 13, 2024, in Washington. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)
President-elect Donald Trump speaks as he arrives for a meeting with the House GOP conference, Wednesday, Nov. 13, 2024, in Washington. From left are Rep. Elise Stefanik, R-N.Y., Rep. Richard Hudson, R-N.C., Rep. Steve Scalise, R-La., and Rep. Tom Emmer, R-Minn. AP Photo/Alex Brandon)
President-elect Donald Trump speaks as he arrives for a meeting with the House GOP conference, Wednesday, Nov. 13, 2024, in Washington. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)
President-elect Donald Trump speaks as he arrives for a meeting with the House GOP conference, Wednesday, Nov. 13, 2024, in Washington. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)
Speaker of the House Mike Johnson, R-La., speaks before President-elect Donald Trump arrives to meet the House GOP conference, Wednesday, Nov. 13, 2024, in Washington. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)
Speaker of the House Mike Johnson, R-La., speaks before President-elect Donald Trump arrives to meet the House GOP conference, Wednesday, Nov. 13, 2024, in Washington. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)
President-elect Donald Trump arrives at Joint Base Andrews, Md., Wednesday, Nov. 13, 2024. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)
President-elect Donald Trump arrives at Joint Base Andrews, Md., Wednesday, Nov. 13, 2024. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)
Elon Musk and others, walk off President-elect Donald Trump's airplane, as he arrives at Joint Base Andrews, Md., Wednesday, Nov. 13, 2024. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)
President-elect Donald Trump’s airplane, with Trump aboard, arrives, Wednesday, Nov. 13, 2024, at Joint Base Andrews, Md. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)
President-elect Donald Trump's airplane, with Trump aboard, arrives, Wednesday, Nov. 13, 2024, at Joint Base Andrews, Md. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)
President-elect Donald Trump arrives at Joint Base Andrews, Md., Wednesday, Nov. 13, 2024. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)
A motorcade carrying President-elect Donald Trump leaves Trump's Mar-a-Lago estate, Wednesday, Nov. 13, 2024, in Palm Beach, Fla. (AP Photo/Julia Demaree Nikhinson)
A motorcade carrying President-elect Donald Trump leaves Trump's Mar-a-Lago estate, Wednesday, Nov. 13, 2024, in Palm Beach, Fla. (AP Photo/Julia Demaree Nikhinson)
FILE - Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk listens as Republican presidential nominee former President Donald Trump speaks at a campaign event at the Butler Farm Show, Oct. 5, 2024, in Butler, Pa. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon, File)
This combo image shows President Joe Biden, left, and President-elect Donald Trump, right. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh, left; Alex Brandon, right)
FILE - Republican presidential nominee former President Donald Trump smiles at an election night watch party at the Palm Beach Convention Center, Wednesday, Nov. 6, 2024, in West Palm Beach, Fla. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci, File)
