Blast site treated as a crime scene

Middletown (WTNH) - The site of the Middletown plant explosion is being treated as a crime scene as investigators try to figure out what went wrong.

The Sunday morning blast at the Kleen Energy plant, which was still under construction, killed five men and injured 12.

Investigators are combing the site of the Middletown power plant explosion focusing on the most badly damaged area trying to pinpoint the cause. A worker who was at the site says there was a natural gas smell less than an hour before the explosion.

The wife of Chris Walters, one of the men killed in the blast, says investigators are looking closely at a welding torch that may have been on when the gas lines were being purged.

Officials will only say that they are looking at everything.

"State Police Major Crimes and the state Fire Marshal's office are interviewing all those employees and hopefully they will come up with what transpired that day," said Al Santostefano, Middletown Deputy Fire Marshal.

There's a 400 foot area that investigators are calling the 'hot zone' and only certain people are being allowed in. The site is being treated as a crime scene, but that doesn't mean a crime occured.

"That's why we call it a criminal scene just so everything is treated very carefully evidence is held and documented, the way you would in a crime scene, and that just makes it that much easier for the whole process," Santostefano said.

State Police investigators say they will be working through the snowstorm, Wednesday, continuing their investigation.