Packaging Corporation of America (PCA) reported an explosion at its DeRidder, Louisiana, containerboard mill on Feb. 8. The incident involved annual repair work being performed on piping in the pulp mill area and resulted in three contractor fatalities and several injuries. The cause is under investigation.
“At the time of the incident, the D1 machine was down for its annual outage and the D3 machine was running and continues to operate,” the company reported. “The current assessment indicates that the annual outage work is expected to be delayed by up to one week and the mill will then resume full operation.”
According to the PCA web site, the DeRidder mill has two containerboard machines, and produces about 900,000 tons per year. It represents about 2% of domestic containerboard production.
