 The explosion seriously weakened the structure of the facility, leaving it highly unstable, and there was extensive smoke damage. The packaging area was totally destroyed and in all, 12 % of the refinery was demolished by the explosion. Removal of debris began the day after the accident, with assistance from structural engineers. The six missing persons were all found dead that day, three of them in tunnels running beneath the factory. The final death toll was thirteen. It was the first major shutdown of a US sugar refinery since American Sugar Refining Inc. ' s Domino Sugar shut down its plant in Chalmette, Louisiana in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.
