Deadly chemical release at West Virginia silver refinery: What caused the hydrogen sulfide explosion at Catalyst Refiners?

Two employees of Ames Goldsmith Corporation died and at least 19 others were hospitalised after a violent chemical reaction at the company’s Catalyst Refiners plant in Nitro, West Virginia, on Wednesday, 22 April 2026. A third person remained in critical condition as of Wednesday afternoon. The incident, which produced toxic hydrogen sulfide gas, occurred while a crew was decommissioning a tank at a facility that was already in the process of shutting down operations.

Kanawha County Commission President Ben Salango told reporters that workers were engaged in cleaning and decontamination activities at the Catalyst Refiners site when the release occurred at approximately 9:30 a.m. A 911 call from the facility reached Kanawha County Metro 911 at 9:33 a.m. The Emergency Operations Center was activated at 9:46 a.m., and a shelter-in-place order was issued for a one-mile radius of the plant at 9:53 a.m., with a wireless emergency alert dispatched to local mobile phone users just after 10:00 a.m.

Kanawha County Emergency Management Director C.W. Sigman told a news conference that workers decommissioning a tank mixed nitric acid with a substance identified as M2000A, triggering an immediate and violent chemical reaction. The combination produced hydrogen sulfide, a toxic and highly flammable gas. Sigman stated that the reaction was instantaneous, adding that the transition points of starting or ending a chemical reaction represent the most hazardous phases of any industrial chemical process. Sigman said the plant manager had indicated that mixing nitric acid with M2000A was not an unusual part of decontamination procedures, but that something had occurred differently on this occasion. That question, Sigman said, would be for investigators to determine.

A total of 21 individuals were transported to hospital. Two died, one was listed in critical condition, and 19 sustained injuries. Seven of the hospitalised individuals were emergency medical services personnel who had been despatched to the scene. Other patients reached hospitals by private vehicle and, in at least one case, a garbage truck. At WVU Medicine Thomas Memorial Hospital in South Charleston, medical staff established a decontamination tent in the ambulance bay to receive patients. The most common symptoms reported were shortness of breath, coughing, and chest tightness.

Ames Goldsmith Corporation President Frank Barber confirmed in a statement that the two deceased were company employees and that one other hospitalized employee was in serious condition. Barber said the chemical fumes had been contained within a single building at the facility. Barber also expressed condolences to the families of the victims, describing the situation as unfathomably difficult and pledging full cooperation with investigators at the local, state, and federal levels.

What chemical reaction caused the deadly incident at the Catalyst Refiners plant in Nitro, West Virginia?

The reaction that killed two workers occurred when nitric acid was combined with M2000A, also identified in early reports as Bonderite, during tank decommissioning operations. The mixture produced hydrogen sulfide, a highly toxic gas that acts rapidly on the respiratory system. Dr. Tom Takubo, a pulmonary physician at WVU Medicine Thomas Memorial Hospital, described M2000A as a pulmonary irritant that coats lung tissue and impedes oxygen absorption into the bloodstream. Takubo said the long-term effects of exposure remained unclear at the time of treatment.

Nitric acid is a corrosive mineral acid commonly used in industrial silver recovery because it dissolves base metals and organic materials, leaving behind silver nitrate from which pure silver can be extracted. Its fumes cause immediate irritation to the respiratory tract, and severe exposure can produce chemical pneumonia. The combination of nitric acid with certain organic or sulfur-containing compounds can generate hydrogen sulfide as a byproduct. Hydrogen sulfide is acutely toxic even at low concentrations, causing rapid incapacitation in enclosed spaces. The fact that the reaction occurred during a shutdown and decommissioning process is significant: industrial safety authorities consistently identify commissioning and decommissioning phases as periods of elevated accident risk because equipment configurations, chemical residues, and procedural sequences differ from routine operational conditions.

The federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration confirmed to news outlets that it had opened a formal investigation into the incident, with a statutory deadline of six months to complete the inquiry. The West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection was also engaged on the ground, providing decontamination and disposal assistance. Kanawha County Commission President Ben Salango indicated that the United States Chemical Safety and Hazard Investigation Board was also expected to be involved in the multi-agency inquiry.

How did West Virginia emergency authorities respond to the Catalyst Refiners chemical release, and what public safety measures were issued?

Emergency response across multiple jurisdictions was activated within minutes of the initial 911 call. Hazmat crews from Charleston and South Charleston fire departments, the Kanawha County Sheriff’s Office, and the Nitro Police Department were all deployed to the Catalyst Refiners site. The South Charleston Fire Department operated a roadside decontamination unit on West Virginia Route 25, where affected individuals were required to remove their clothing and undergo chemical decontamination spray-down before being transported to hospital.

A one-mile shelter-in-place order was enforced across a zone spanning from the Catalyst Refiners facility to the Nitro/St. Albans bridge and encompassing the campus of West Virginia State University. West Virginia State University President Erick Cage said the institution was grateful for the prompt response of emergency services and for the outreach from state officials throughout the event. The shelter-in-place remained in effect for more than five hours and was fully lifted by Wednesday afternoon. Route 25 from Cleveland Avenue to New Goff Mountain Road in Institute remained closed following the lifting of the shelter-in-place order.

Sigman noted that some plant employees had responded with immediate presence of mind, equipping themselves with respirators and assisting in evacuating colleagues from the affected area. Sigman also confirmed that county fire officials had conducted site visits to the Catalyst Refiners facility in the months preceding the incident and had engaged plant management on emergency response planning. West Virginia Governor Patrick Morrisey confirmed two deaths at a Wednesday evening news conference and stated that based on information available, the incident had not compromised air quality or the water supply in surrounding communities. The governor also praised first responders, saying they had placed themselves at risk to protect others and had likely saved lives.

What is Ames Goldsmith Corporation’s Catalyst Refiners plant, and why was it being shut down at the time of the incident?

The Catalyst Refiners plant in Nitro, West Virginia, is operated by Ames Goldsmith Corporation, a precious metals refining and fabricating company with a history dating to 1860. Originally founded as Ames Chemical Company, the enterprise was sold to GAF Corporation in the late 1960s and subsequently acquired by Ames Goldsmith Corporation in 1979. The company describes itself as a world leader in ethylene oxide catalyst refining, with annual silver consumption exceeding 85 million troy ounces across its global facilities.

The Nitro facility’s core function was silver recovery: Catalyst Refiners extracted silver from spent industrial catalysts and chemical process residues, including materials sourced from factories across the wider Institute industrial complex. Kanawha County Emergency Management Director C.W. Sigman observed that the operation’s value was evident even in routine cleaning, noting that vacuuming the facility’s office carpets alone could yield thousands of dollars in recovered silver. Silver recovered through such operations is used across a wide range of industries, including electronics, photographic and medical imaging films, jewellery, and ethylene oxide catalysts used in chemical manufacturing.

The plant sits in a stretch of Kanawha Valley that was historically known as West Virginia’s chemical valley, a corridor along the Kanawha River that once housed numerous industrial chemical operations. Many of those facilities have closed or changed ownership over recent decades. The Catalyst Refiners plant was in the final stages of a planned operational shutdown at the time of the incident, with workers engaged specifically in cleaning and decontaminating equipment and infrastructure. Officials did not provide a precise timeline for the closure or specify whether the shutdown affected the entire site or a portion of it.

What regional and institutional consequences follow from the fatal chemical accident at Catalyst Refiners in Kanawha County?

The deaths of two workers and the hospitalisation of 21 individuals, including seven emergency responders, will trigger a sustained multi-agency investigation with direct implications for industrial safety oversight in West Virginia and nationally. The federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration, operating under a six-month investigation window, will examine whether proper procedures were in place and followed during the decommissioning process, whether workers received adequate training and protective equipment for shutdown-phase chemical handling, and whether the specific combination of nitric acid and M2000A represented a foreseeable and preventable hazard.

The involvement of the United States Chemical Safety and Hazard Investigation Board, which investigates industrial chemical accidents of public significance, signals that the findings could carry implications beyond Catalyst Refiners. The Board’s reports have historically informed regulatory standards across entire industrial sectors and have prompted revisions to federal chemical safety rules. A key area of inquiry will be whether shutdown and decommissioning procedures at silver recovery and precious metals refining operations carry specific hazard profiles that current safety regulations adequately address.

For Kanawha County and the broader Kanawha Valley region, the incident reinforces long-standing concerns about industrial chemical risk in a corridor that retains significant legacy chemical infrastructure. West Virginia Senator Shelley Moore Capito also issued a statement following the incident. Governor Patrick Morrisey confirmed that the West Virginia Department of Homeland Security’s Emergency Management Division, the Department of Health, and the Department of Environmental Protection remained engaged on the ground. The governor said it was too early on the first day of the incident to draw conclusions, and that the investigative process would need to determine what went wrong and how such an outcome could be prevented in future.

What are the key takeaways from the fatal Catalyst Refiners chemical leak in Nitro, West Virginia?

• Two employees of Ames Goldsmith Corporation died and one was left in critical condition after a violent chemical reaction at the Catalyst Refiners plant in Nitro, West Virginia, on 22 April 2026, with a total of 21 individuals transported to hospital, including seven emergency responders.
• The reaction occurred when nitric acid and a substance identified as M2000A were mixed during tank decommissioning operations, producing hydrogen sulfide gas, a toxic compound that causes rapid respiratory failure at high concentrations.
• The Catalyst Refiners facility was in the process of a planned shutdown at the time of the incident, with workers engaged in cleaning and decontamination activities that are recognised as a phase of elevated industrial accident risk.
• The federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration confirmed it had opened a formal investigation with a six-month completion deadline, and Kanawha County Commission President Ben Salango indicated the United States Chemical Safety and Hazard Investigation Board was also expected to be involved.
• West Virginia Governor Patrick Morrisey stated at a Wednesday evening news conference that the incident had not compromised air quality or the water supply in surrounding communities, and the shelter-in-place order covering a one-mile radius was fully lifted more than five hours after it was issued.