Hamilton man among five people killed in an explosion at a Conn. power plant

A southern Ontario man was close to finishing his work at a Connecticut power plant Sunday when he made a fateful decision to send co-worker Adam Young to work in another part of the site.

Moments later, a deadly explosion felt as far as 30 kilometres away rocked the Kleen Energy Systems plant in Middletown, Conn.

Roy Rushton, a 36-year-old husband and father who lived in Hamilton, was killed.

Young, 26, also from Hamilton, escaped unharmed.

“(Rushton) was completing what he was doing and told Adam to go and do another part of the job at the other end of the plant,” said Jim Bowman, manager of Asbestos Workers Union Local 95, of which the men are members.

The 11:15 a.m. explosion killed five and injured more than two dozen.

Workers were installing insulation at the under-construction Kleen Energy plant. The blast happened as workers were clearing air from gas lines, but the exact cause remains under investigation.

Bowman said Young’s father was on a plane to bring his devastated son home.

The Hamilton men were friends working for Coverflex Manufacturing Inc., a Houston, Texas-based company. They were contracted out to Siemens to put insulation on two gas turbines being installed at the site. Both turbines were produced at the Siemens plant in Hamilton.

The blast happened the day before they were to return home. They had been at the plant for just a week.

“Roy sent Adam away at just the right moment and saved his life and Roy took the brunt,” said Rushton’s wife, Patty Dean-Rushton.

Rushton was the supervisor and Young was the apprentice on the pipe insulation job.

Young called his father, Scott Young, who is also his boss. Scott Young arrived at Dean-Rushton’s door Sunday to tell her of the blast but did not yet know if Rushton was among the dead.

Nine hours later, police confirmed he was and that his body was still on site.

“I don’t know how to tell his daughter her daddy’s gone,” said Dean-Rushton on Monday. “She thinks Daddy is just at work.”

Clare, 4, is the couple’s only child.

“He was a loving father who lived for his daughter,” said his wife, 42.

He carefully followed Clare’s ringette and gymnastics activities and loved spending time with her.

Rushton’s mother and sister watched the news all day Sunday and called anyone in Middletown – police, Red Cross, the hospital – trying in vain to find out if Rushton was alive.

They too are concerned for Clare.

“It’s such an early age to lose a dad,” said his mother, Joan Rushton.

Rushton was an on-call volunteer with the Hamilton Beach Rescue Unit for more than 20 years, said the unit’s chief Leon Buta, who described him as a “good hearted guy that was pleasant to work with.”

His sister, Jodi Rushton, said he was very accommodating.

“He was just a well-liked guy. He was very laid back, very quiet,” she said, adding they are in shock and that everything seems surreal.

Union official Bowman is friends with both the Rushton and Young families and fought back tears as he spoke Monday.

He said the job was routine and called it “nothing out of the ordinary.”

“It’s a hit to us personally, but it’s also a hit to the construction industry in Ontario because we try to prevent these things from happening. It’s like losing a member of our family.”

Bowman said he has heard questions about whether the facility should have been evacuated before the gas lines were cleared.