The Associated Press
By Greg Bluestein
 

AP Photo/Stephen Morton Firefighters tackle the fire after the blast.

PORT WENTWORTH, Ga. — A week after a deadly sugar refinery explosion, the death toll rose to at least eight Thursday and dozens of firefighters continued to battle the obstinate blaze.

Michael Kelly Fields, 40, died early Thursday at the Joseph M. Still Burn Center at Doctors Hospital in Augusta, spokeswoman Beth Frits said. Sixteen other workers remained hospitalized there, 14 of them in critical condition, she said.

Seven other people have been found dead in the rubble at the at the Imperial Sugar Co. plant in Port Wentworth, and one worker remained missing.

Sugar dust is thought to be the cause of the Feb. 7 blast. Emergency crews were able to snuff out the fire at the plant's main building Wednesday, but the blaze persisted at the refinery's 80-foot silos.

Local crews had to call in a specialized team with powerful equipment to assault the silo fires, where thick masses of molten sugar were still smoldering even after a helicopter dumped thousands of gallons of water.

"They're still working on the fire, still trying to put it out," said Chatham Emergency Management Agency spokeswoman Courtney Cunningham.

Emergency workers were able to pull a seventh body out of the second-floor break room Wednesday. Authorities believe the last missing person is in a section of the same room, which is still littered with wreckage.

Fields had been living in Savannah for about a year and was a supervisor at the Imperial plant, the Chattanooga (Tenn.) Times Free Press reported.

Local authorities and the company have withheld the names of other victims. But The Savannah Morning News said funeral homes have released the names of four: Earl Quarterman Sr., 55, and Eric Barnes, 56, both of Savannah; Earl Johnson, 56, of Garden City; and Byron Singleton, 26, of Ellabell.

The refinery is on a 160-acre site on the Savannah River upstream from Savannah. The plant is 872,000 square feet and about 12 percent of it was destroyed, company spokesman Steve Behm said.cause of the Feb. 7 blast. Emergency crews were able to snuff out the fire at the plant's main building Wednesday, but the blaze persisted at the refinery's 80-foot silos.

Local crews had to call in a specialized team with powerful equipment to assault the silo fires, where thick masses of molten sugar were still smoldering even after a helicopter dumped thousands of gallons of water.

"They're still working on the fire, still trying to put it out," said Chatham Emergency Management Agency spokeswoman Courtney Cunningham.

Emergency workers were able to pull a seventh body out of the second-floor break room Wednesday. Authorities believe the last missing person is in a section of the same room, which is still littered with wreckage.

Fields had been living in Savannah for about a year and was a supervisor at the Imperial plant, the Chattanooga (Tenn.) Times Free Press reported.

Local authorities and the company have withheld the names of other victims. But The Savannah Morning News said funeral homes have released the names of four: Earl Quarterman Sr., 55, and Eric Barnes, 56, both of Savannah; Earl Johnson, 56, of Garden City; and Byron Singleton, 26, of Ellabell.

The refinery is on a 160-acre site on the Savannah River upstream from Savannah. The plant is 872,000 square feet and about 12 percent of it was destroyed, company spokesman Steve Behm said.