In addition to the two people who died, 11 others were injured, Allison Martin, the mayor’s spokesperson, said Wednesday morning.

The cause was under investigation. Greenberg said employees inside the plant initially told officials that “everything was normal when the explosion happened.”

The company said it was in the early stages of investigating the cause and was cooperating with authorities.

“We appreciate their heroic response and extend our thanks to the community members who showed their support throughout the day,” the company said.

Patrick Livers lives in a neighborhood right across the street from the factory, across the railroad tracks. He was at work when his mother, who was picking up her children from school and taking them home, called him to tell him that her house had been damaged in the explosion.

“I was like, ‘What are you talking about? Then she showed me the video. I was like, ‘Oh, you’ve got to be kidding me,'” he said.

Livers said no one was home at the time. He said the explosion blew out windows on his street.

“The house is still standing. This is just structural damage. If it was on a wall, it’s on the floor,” he said. “All the neighbors’ windows were shattered, the doors were broken in. It looked like a small tornado had started inside the house.”

Steve Parobek was at work when the explosion blew out the kitchen window of his apartment a block from the factory. He arrived home to find his cat safe and used two pizza boxes and duct tape to cover his window as temperatures steadily dropped Tuesday evening.

The Louisville Fire Department was leading the investigation Tuesday evening with assistance from state and federal partners. A reconstruction team from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives traveled to Louisville to help determine the cause of the explosion.

In April 2003, an explosion at the same location killed an employee at a caramel coloring factory owned by DD Williamson & Co. Givaudan acquired the factory from DD Williamson in 2021.

Federal investigators determined that a pressure relief valve on a tank was removed when the company moved the tank to its Louisville plant in 1989. The tank exploded because there was no pressure relief valve , according to a report from the Chemical Safety Board.

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Associated Press journalists John Raby and Bruce Schreiner contributed to this report.