A worker from Southern Indiana was killed and three other workers were injured in an explosion and fire Monday afternoon at Rubbertown’s Carbide Industries plant, with Louisville police warning residents within a mile to stay inside and close their doors and windows.

Doug Hamilton, the city’s emergency management director, said the warning turned out to be unnecessary, although he said it wasn’t a bad idea. An air test around the plant detected no danger, he said.

“There is no risk to the community right now, and hasn’t been,” Hamilton said from the scene, adding that the warning should have been lifted sooner.

Several nearby residents who depend on telephone alerts to find out when a chemical plant leak occurs were livid that the system had no report on the Carbide Industries fire nearly two hours after it began.

“I am so furious right now,” said Terri Humphrey, a resident of Riverside Gardens, south of the plant but just beyond the one-mile warning zone.

The fire, reported at 5:40 p.m. at the plant at 4400 Bells Lane, involved calcium carbide, which Hamilton said poses an inhalation hazard if someone comes in close contact with it. Water can’t be used on calcium-carbide fires because it produces acetylene gas, he said.

Four workers, two of whom had life-threatening injuries, were taken to University Hospital, said Capt. Sal Melendez, spokesman for Louisville Fire & Rescue. One who later died was identified as Steven Nichols, 59, of Charlestown, Ind., according to deputy Jefferson County coroner Sam Weakley.

Another worker was released late Monday night, said hospital spokesman David McArthur.

Of the three surviving workers, two were Carbide Industries employees and one worked at a neighboring plant, said John Gant, general manager of Carbide Industries. He said 17 employees were in the plant at the time.

The fire blew out one side of the furnace that occupies two floors of the five-story building and can reach 3,800-degrees Fahrenheit. “When the building exploded, it threw a lot of this very hot material out over a long, broad area,” Gant said.

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