1. Amalgamated Sugar

An explosion early Sept. 28 at Amalgamated Sugar’s Nampa, Idaho, production complex injured five employees.

Four received first aid and one was transported to a hospital for further evaluation, company spokeswoman Jessica Anderson said. The injuries were not life-threatening.

The Boise-based company continues to investigate, she said. More details will be released as they become available.

The explosion occurred at about 7:45 a.m. as employees cleaned a steam dryer, Anderson said. Paramedics responded and took one employee to a hospital. That employee walked to the ambulance.

She said the dryer, which occupies a building northwest of the main sugar-processing plant on Karcher Road, clogged late Sept. 27 and was shut down. Employees were cleaning it out when the explosion occurred.

“All of the employees were wearing appropriate fire-protection gear, which is standard personal-protective equipment for working in the steam dryer,” she said.

Anderson Sept. 29 said the employee who went to the hospital Sept. 28 was treated and released that day.

The dryer handles pulp. After sugar is extracted from the beet, the plant material, or pulp, is dried and sold as animal feed.

Amalgamated is a grower-owned cooperative. The Nampa plant employs 600 people. The company is in early harvest season, partly to get factories running ahead of October’s main harvest, Anderson said.