Hickory Sun

Terrified residents living near OneH2 Inc.in Catawba County, want the hydrogen plant out of their neighborhood immediately, and they've started a petition to make sure it happens, according to WSOC TV 9.

On April 7, around 8 a.m., neighbors said they saw small blasts at the hydrogen plant followed by an explosion, and now they are fearful it may happen again, according to WSOC TV 9. More than 1,500 people have signed the petition, demanding the hydrogen plant be moved away from their community.

In response to the petition calling for the plant to find a new location, Paul Dawson, CEO and president of OneH2 Inc., told the Hickory Daily Record he may contact local officials in Hickory and Longview to discuss a better place "for large-scale hydrogen production."

“We’re going to go through a process of going, ‘Well, OK does it make sense for this facility to have large-scale hydrogen production?’” Dawson told the Hickory Daily Record. “Would it make more sense to move that somewhere else and focus on manufacturing, which is the really important bit?”

Dawson told the Hickory Daily Record, he is skeptical about hydrogen being the cause of the explosion.  

“In terms of cause, right now hydrogen is not the smoking gun,” Dawson told the publication. “There’s a high level of probability that the investigation is going to come out and hydrogen’s going to be cleared.”

The day of the explosion, people in the surrounding community reported shattered windows at their homes and some said the blast knocked them to the floor.

"I had laid down on the sofa and it threw me off the sofa onto the floor," Lee Rigsbee, who lives near the plant, told WSOC TV 9. "My dog jumped on top of me. I guess he was trying to protect me.”

Josh Walker, another homeowner who lives near the plant told WSOC TV 9 his home was extensively damaged.

"My bed lifted up, everything lifted up," Walker told WSOC TV. "The whole house, the picture frames came off the wall. Everything went everywhere.”

Approximately 60 homes were damaged by the explosion and one home is uninhabitable, according to WSOC TV 9. The blast was reportedly felt in Hickory and about 10 miles from the plant in southern Caldwell County. The explosion also damaged the facility.  The back wall of the hydrogen plant was blown out.

At least 42 employees were on site when the blast occurred but they were not injured, according to WSOC TV 9. The cause of the explosion is still under investigation.