| In a world where corporations and government carefully control information they give to the public, the price could become pretty high over the withholding.
Bayer CropScience officials repeatedly refused to give local emergency responders details about last week's explosion and fire in Kanawha County.
Unfortunately, the scenario is frequently repeated.
There was a big explosion, the impact felt over most of the Kanawha Valley.
The problems are evident on Kanawha's Metro 911 tapes.
You can hear the 911 tapes by accessing wvgazette.com
The Charleston Gazette is reporting that plant officials told dispatchers that there was an "emergency" in progress, but said the company instructed them not to provide more details.
911 dispatchers and emergency responders certainly needed some details.
Barry Withrow, a 45-year-old father of two from Cross Lanes, was killed and a second plant worker was seriously injured.
For several hours, plant officials would not say what had happened or where in the plant the incident had occurred, the recordings show.
"Well, I can't give out any information, like I say, we'll contact you with the, with the proper information," a plant gate worker told 911. Thats was 14 minutes after the blast.
Dale Petry, Kanawha County's emergency director, told the Gazette that local responders weren't sure what to do, because Bayer gave them precious little information for several hours after the explosion.
"We didn't know what to do," Petry said. "We couldn't get anything out of them. We want to protect the community, and we need more information to do that."
During the first 911 call last week, the dispatcher asked what had occurred, and the plant worker said, "Well, I haven't got instructions as to what to tell everybody yet."
"We just have an emergency alarm in progress right now," the plant worker said. "And we'll contact you as soon as I get the information."
Later, the Metro dispatcher called back at about the same time that a plant worker picked up the phone to call 911. The worker said Bayer needed an ambulance immediately for a burn victim.
Again, the dispatcher asked for more information. "Well, I can't give out any information until I get my information," the plant worker said on the tape.
About 45 minutes after the explosion, a call said: "We have an emergency at [the] Bayer CropScience plant, and the only information I can give you is that ... you might want to alert the community."
The 911 dispatcher asked specifically if the explosion had occurred in the unit that produces the pesticide Larvin.
"I'm only allowed to tell you that we have an emergency in the plant," the Bayer worker said.
Much later, frustrated emergency officials issued a shelter-in-place advisory for South Charleston, Dunbar, Nitro, St. Albans and Institute.
Over the next 1 1/2 hours, Bayer officials called the Metro 911 center four more times. In each call, plant workers reported only that "there had been an emergency."
About 1 a.m., county officials were given more details about where the explosion occurred and what chemicals might have been released from the plant.
Federal records released Thursday showed that Bayer did not report the incident to the National Response Center in a timely manner.
wvgazette.com
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