Authorities identify second person killed in explosion at Toledo industrial facility

TOLEDO, Ohio (WTVG) - Two people have died after an explosion at an industrial facility in the 2900 block of South Ave. Tuesday morning, according to Mayor Wade Kapszukiewicz.

Victims of the fire

The coroner’s office identified those who died in the fire as Heladio G. Perez, 46, and Mary Allen, 64. An autopsy revealed they both died as a result of blunt force trauma.

Family members identified one of the victims to 13 Action News as Mary Allen, 64, of Toledo. The name of the other employee who died has not yet been released. TFRD said the Lucas County Coroner’s Office will identify the second victim at a later time.

Mary Allen’s family told 13 Action News that she was a mother and grandmother who loved to fish, loved her job and was always the first one in for her shift.

“My mom was amazing and I’m going to miss her,” said Lenore Bangura, Mary Allen’s daughter. “I’m mad as hell she came to work on time. I’m mad as hell she’s so dedicated to this company that she was the first one in and the last one out.”

Officials from Toledo Fire & Recue said 12 workers were inside at the time, with most escaping with minor injuries.

Public health and safety

A representative of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, John Gulch, said crews conducted air monitoring and found there’s no threat to the public.

The EPA is continuing to monitor conditions associated with the explosion, according to TFRD.

“Right now the levels are exactly where you would expect them to be if nothing happened,” Gulch said. “It’s been a pretty windy day, so again, if you’re in your house and you look out and there was smoke, just wait until the smoke has dissipated and moved away. And we were advised to tell people to treat it exactly like that wildfire smoke.”

What happened?

The incident happened shortly before 5 a.m. on August 18 during the shift change at the Brent Industries facility. It’s an industrial cleaning and recycling facility.

The building contained multiple tanks of mineral spirits, according to fire officials at the scene.

Flames were more than a hundred feet in the air, with a partial collapse of the building.

Investigators are still working to figure out what exactly caused the explosion.

Background on Brent Industries

Brent Industries is an industrial dry-cleaning and laundry facility where workers clean shop towels, gloves and absorbent pads using solvents and detergents.

13 Action News reached out to the company on Tuesday for a comment on the fire and have yet to hear back.

A 2015 order from the EPA shows the facility was using a petroleum-based industrial solvent in its dry-cleaning process. At that time, the solvent was being stored in above-ground tanks on the property.

The Ohio EPA cited the company for multiple hazardous-waste violations that year, including sending flammable waste to an unpermitted site, failing to properly test and manage that waste, and not meeting tank safety standards.

Brent paid an $8,000 penalty and was ordered to upgrade its waste tanks and operations.

Toledo Fire and Rescue response

Mayor Kapszukiewicz said about 100 different fire personnel from TFRD responded in some capacity. The response required about three times as many people to respond than a typical fire event.

Crews were able to largely contain the fire by 6:15 a.m., but smoke was still billowing from the fire hours later.

“It’s a difficult scene to put the fire out because of the damage to the building, because of how the lot is situated, and being able to access the area that’s still on fire,” TFRD Chief Allison Armstrong said. “We still have a portion of the roof that’s cantilevered on a wall. And so that’s subject to, you know, failure, and we don’t want to risk any firefighters going in a hazardous location.”

No firefighters were injured in the response.

Hear from Armstrong about the incident and the challenges for firefighters in the video below. It’s from an early morning briefing on Tuesday.

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