OSHA cites Horizon Biofuels for Fremont plant explosion

The Occupational Safety and Health Administration said Friday it had fined Horizon Biofuels, a wood refining facility in Fremont that exploded in July, killing a worker and his two preteen daughters. OSHA wouldn’t immediately disclose the amount of the fine or the exact reason for citing the facility.

OSHA has six months to cite a facility following an incident, the agency confirmed earlier this month. That six-month anniversary was Thursday.

Despite OSHA closing its case, there are at least two other agencies with open investigations.

In September, the U.S. Chemical Safety and Hazard Investigation Board found the incident to be completely preventable, in a preliminary report.

“This terrible tragedy should not have happened,” CSB Chairperson Steve Owens said in a release. “Preliminary evidence points to a combustible wood dust explosion, a well-known – and completely avoidable – hazard in wood processing.”

The board also discovered the worker, 32-year-old Dylan Danielson, initially survived the explosion. Danielson was trapped and able to call his wife and the plant manager working from home. The resulting fire and possible collapse of the facility prevented neighboring workers and emergency personnel from immediately entering.

Nebraska State Fire Marshal Doug Hohbein said his office was on site the day of the explosion and in the days after but hasn’t been back since.

“At this point, the investigation is still open, ongoing,” Hohbein said. “We're limited to what we can do there because of the structural instability of the building, to do anything more than enter the exterior part.”

The fire marshal’s investigative division is in standby mode, Hohbein said. It’s not unusual for investigations to be open for multiple years, he said.

As far as any inspection prior to the incident, Hohbein said his office only inspects new buildings, plus businesses that require a license, like hospitals, nursing homes, daycares and places with liquor licenses. Inspections at other enterprises would need to be initiated by a complaint.

The Nebraska Department of Water, Environment and Energy investigated a dust complaint last February after being notified by a surrounding business. Dust covered vehicles parked outside of Horizon Biofuels, the report found.

The department didn’t hear back from Horizon on measures to correct the dust buildup, NDWEE said in August.

Former OSHA compliance officer and assistant regional administrator John Newquist said he used to receive reports from state agencies frequently. He added the administration has a combustible dust emphasis program.

A Nebraska Department of Water, Environment and Energy spokesperson said it didn’t report the issue to OSHA, because the plant wasn’t operational at the time of its investigation and the department only looks into issues with outside air, not indoor.

Many state agencies are unaware of the dust program through OSHA, Newquist said.

“I don't know if it's leniency, it's more ignorance,” Newquist said. “From my experience, they don't know that OSHA investigates combustible dust, so therefore they never think about even making a call to OSHA.”

The state fire marshal’s office was also not aware of the dust complaint, Hohbein said. Examining communication and reporting procedures between agencies wouldn’t be off the table for the fire marshal.

“If there are improvements to be made, that's certainly something we can look at and are not opposed to at all,” Hohbein said.

In an interview with Nebraska Public Media News last year, State Sen. Dave Wordekemper of Fremont said he hopes facilities will better monitor their housekeeping following the tragedy at Horizon, which killed Danielson and his 8- and 12-year-old daughters, who were at the plant waiting for their dad to get off work to take them to a medical appointment.

“It's an unfortunate situation, and you feel for the families and everything, and you hate to have a tragedy like that happen,” Wordekemper said, “but maybe it's a sign (to) other people to be aware of the situation.”

The former firefighter stopped short of saying new laws would be introduced as a result of the explosion.

“I don't know at this point if there needs to be any legislative changes,” Wordekemper said.

Industrial facilities have to decide how they want to run their business, he said.

“That's their choice. You can have all the regulations you want and all the state statutes you want, but it's up to the individual to do what he sees fit to mitigate any hazards,” the state senator said.

On Thursday, Nebraska Public Media News reached out to his office to see if anything changed. A staff member said there were no updates.

National legislation was proposed to be more strict on combustible dust, Newquist said.

“Unfortunately, it didn't happen because of the politics of trying to get in a new OSHA regulation,” he said. “It takes years, and Congress does not usually like new OSHA regulations.”

Those types of regulations are often seen as big cost burdens on small businesses, Newquist said. He added that many members of the public hope agencies can perform hazard and safety checks periodically, but the resources aren’t there in smaller communities.

At least one other plant in Fremont struggled to keep dust under control. In 2022, an Archer Daniels Midland facility caught fire, due to grain dust buildup.

Newquist said 99% of industrial facilities don’t have cleaning or housekeeping issues. He “strongly believed” any citation would be a housekeeping violation.

“Just on my history of dealing with wood dust, it's everywhere, and that's on them,” Newquist said. “I mean, they have a responsibility to do basic housekeeping, not have this place so filled with wood dust that it blows up the facility and kills three people.”

Newquist said a housekeeping citation could be up to $16,000. It’s unlikely the local fire department or fire marshal would issue a citation, since OSHA holds jurisdiction over worker safety issues, he said.

“And then there's issues of, is there going to be outside litigation or not?” Newquist said. “Since it's a worker-related injury, usually not, but because we have the two daughters die, there could be litigation.”

Based on his experience with workplace incidents, a court case would likely be civil, not criminal.

Shortly after the explosion, Horizon Biofuels’ general manager Chad Shoeneck expressed his grief toward the tragedy and said he’s committed to a complete investigation. He told Nebraska Public Media News earlier this month he wouldn’t comment further.

Editor’s note: Nick Loomis contributed to this story.