Hearing Set on Connecticut Power Plant Explosion

A Connecticut judge is holding a hearing on a federal agency’s request to review evidence from a power plant explosion that killed six workers in February.

The U.S. Chemical Safety and Hazard Investigation Board is expected to ask a Middletown Superior Court judge on Tuesday to order Middletown police to let the board’s investigators review a gas meter from the Kleen Energy Systems plant.

An explosion ripped apart the nearly completed 620-megawatt plant on Feb. 7. Employees had complained of a strong gas smell shortly before the blast, which occurred as workers blew gas through pipes to clean them.

Middletown police are investigating the blast and have the gas meter that the federal agency wants to examine.