On 7 February 2008, fourteen people were killed and thirty-six injured during a dust explosion at a refinery owned by Imperial Sugar in Port Wentworth, Georgia, United States.

Dust explosions had been an issue of concern among U.S. authorities since three fatal accidents in 2003, with efforts made to improve safety and reduce the risk of reoccurrence.

The Port Wentworth refinery was large and old, featuring outdated construction methods, factors which are believed to have contributed to the fire's severity.

Large accumulations of sugar dust due to poor housekeeping became airborne from the initial shock waves, leading to a series of massive secondary explosions spreading throughout the factory.

[6] Investigations by Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) reached similar conclusions.

[3] Imperial Sugar's refinery in Port Wentworth, Georgia, was a four-story structure on the bank of the Savannah River.

Imperial bought the refinery together with Savannah Foods to form part of a national supply and distribution network to meet demand from businesses such as Piggly Wiggly, General Mills and Wal-Mart.

[10] In the last full fiscal year before the disaster, which ended on September 30, 2007, the facility refined 14.51 million hundredweight (658,163 tonnes) of sugar, 9% of the nation's requirements, compared to Imperial's Gramercy, Louisiana, refinery, which refined 11.08 million hundredweight (502,580 tonnes) of sugar in the same time period.

The last two annual reports by Imperial before the explosion said that any damage to the facility at Port Wentworth would "have a material effect on the company's business, financial condition, results of operations and cash flows".

The CSB continued to be concerned about the potential for further fatal accidents up until the explosion at the Imperial refinery in Port Wentworth.

[18] The explosion occurred in the center of the refinery, where bagging and storage facilities were fed sugar by a network of elevators and conveyor belts.

[19] Off-duty employees were brought in to assist with search and rescue operations, as emergency services personnel were unfamiliar with the plant's layout.

Most of the three-mile (5 km) stretch of river that had previously been closed was reopened without restriction, although a patrol remained in place to enforce a safety zone.

The 100-foot (30 m) sugar storage silos remained alight despite attempts to put the fire out by dousing them with thousands of gallons of water from a helicopter.

[23] The location of the explosion was quickly established as a building used to store refined sugar before packaging it and two of three 100-foot (30 m) tall, 18-inch (46 cm) thick reinforced concrete storage silos adjacent to it, as pictured.

[12] Federal investigations by OSHA and the CSB were launched, and they interviewed witnesses, checked documentation, and conducted on-scene examination of the plant.

By the time this took place, four months after the disaster, investigators believed that the explosion started in a basement area beneath the silos, from which sugar was fed up to the packaging building on conveyor belts.

[25] Imperial's refinery in Louisiana was shut down by the company six weeks after the Port Wentworth disaster, over fears a similar explosion would occur there.

[8] The Georgia plant's 371 workers continued to receive payment from Imperial, and 275 were rehired to assist with cleanup and demolition of parts of the refinery that could not be salvaged.

It had never practiced evacuation procedures, and the lack of emergency lighting meant that people were confined to dark hallways and tunnels at the time of the explosions.

[5] In 2011 Lawrence Manker Jr., an Imperial worker who underwent 70 surgeries for burns covering 85% of his body after the plant explosion, settled his lawsuit with the company for an undisclosed amount.

[34][35][36] The United States Department of Labor requested that Ed Tarver, U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Georgia, pursue criminal prosecution against Imperial and its executives.

He also cited a lack of federal criminal laws specifically related to safety in the sugar industry as a reason for his decision.

[37][38] On February 7, 2009, a monument honoring the people lost in the explosion was dedicated at Legacy Park, on the grounds of the Port Wentworth plant.