Four Critically Injured After Propane-Fueled Blast Levels Cocoa-Butter Plant in South Jersey

At 2:36 p.m. on a clear Wednesday afternoon, a low-slung warehouse in one of New Jersey’s busiest industrial hubs erupted into a fireball.

Flames shot an estimated 30 feet into the air from the Savita Naturals cocoa-butter processing plant in Logan Township, Gloucester County. A black column of smoke was visible from Interstate 295, U.S. Route 322 and the New Jersey Turnpike. Residents across South Jersey and into Delaware County, Pennsylvania, said their homes shook and windows rattled.

Within minutes, four workers from the plant — including the company’s owner, according to local officials — had been rushed to regional trauma and burn centers in critical condition with severe burns. Authorities ordered a two-mile shelter-in-place around the facility, located at 617 Heron Drive in the sprawling Pureland Industrial Complex, and launched a multiagency response to what one local police chief called the largest industrial accident he had seen in his career.

“In my 25th year, this is the largest industrial accident that I can recall,” Logan Township Police Chief Joseph Flatley said at a briefing after the March 4 explosion. “This is a terrible tragedy.”

Investigation focuses on propane-based extraction

The blast at Savita Naturals, a specialty oil extraction company that processes cocoa butter for the chocolate industry and also works with other oilseeds and CBD, is now the subject of a joint investigation by the Gloucester County Prosecutor’s Office, state fire officials and federal workplace-safety agencies. No deaths have been reported, but authorities say the four Savita employees remain critically injured. At least two other people, including a worker at a nearby business who suffered a medical emergency during the incident, were also taken to hospitals.

The cause of the explosion has not been determined. Investigators have confirmed that Savita uses propane as part of its extraction process and stores a significant volume of the highly flammable gas on site.

“Savita processes cocoa butter for the chocolate industry, and there is a large amount of propane stored on the premises and used in the production process,” Rebecca Forand, public information officer for the Gloucester County Prosecutor’s Office, said. She added that the force of the explosion “was felt throughout the county and into the tri-state area.”

Savita describes itself in trade materials as a provider of specialty oil extraction, using propane-based solvent systems to produce higher-quality cocoa butter and defatted cocoa powders, as well as other botanical oils. The technology, common in parts of the food and cannabis industries, relies on pressurized vessels, pumps and storage tanks filled with liquefied propane — an efficient solvent but a powerful fuel if it escapes confinement and ignites.

Authorities have not said whether a leak, equipment failure, human error or some other factor triggered the March 4 blast. They also have not released any prior inspection history for the plant. Federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) officials are expected to review whether process-safety rules, gas detection, ventilation and emergency procedures at the site met regulatory standards.

Shelter-in-place lifted after air monitoring

As firefighters and hazmat teams converged on the scene, the immediate concern was the possibility of secondary explosions. Several large propane tanks on the property, together holding roughly 500 gallons, survived the initial blast but had to be managed carefully.

Gloucester County emergency officials ordered people within two miles of the intersection of Heron Drive and High Hill Road to remain indoors with windows and doors closed. Truck traffic in and out of the Pureland complex slowed to a standstill, and nearby businesses paused operations as smoke poured from the damaged building.

By late afternoon, air monitoring around the site showed no hazardous concentrations of chemicals, officials said. The shelter-in-place order was lifted just before 5 p.m., though crews remained on scene for days to perform a controlled burn of remaining propane and secure the structure.

“The community is safe,” Flatley told reporters as the order was lifted, while cautioning that air quality would continue to be monitored.

Shockwave damage and disrupted neighbors

The explosion heavily damaged the Savita facility, with parts of the one-story structure partially collapsed. Two neighboring buildings — a Sulzer industrial equipment facility and a Bishops’ Storehouse and Home Storage Center that functions as a food bank — were later deemed uninhabitable pending structural assessments.

Across a wider radius, residents and businesses reported broken windows, cracked walls and other damage consistent with a powerful shockwave. One witness told local television reporters he saw a person on fire emerge from the building and called 911. Another estimated that flames from the initial blast rose three stories high.

Gov. Mikie Sherrill said in a statement that she had been briefed on the incident and that New Jersey State Police were assisting local and county responders.

“We are actively supporting with resource coordination and will continue to monitor the situation to ensure the safety of residents and support those impacted,” Sherrill said.

Questions for industrial corridors like Pureland

The blast has drawn attention to the nature of Pureland Industrial Complex itself. Established in the 1970s on former farmland, the 3,000-plus-acre site along the Delaware River is now one of the largest industrial parks on the East Coast, marketed as a strategic logistics hub for the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic. It houses national-brand warehouses, light manufacturing, engineering firms and charitable operations such as the food bank — alongside higher-hazard facilities like Savita that handle large quantities of flammable chemicals.

The proximity of a propane-based extraction plant to lower-risk neighbors underscores the challenges of regulating modern industrial corridors, where different types of operations share walls and parking lots.

Officials have not suggested any criminal activity in connection with the explosion. At a follow-up briefing two days after the blast, county authorities said the incident did “not appear to be criminal in nature,” focusing attention instead on potential equipment or process failures.

OSHA has not yet publicly released any findings related to Savita, but the agency’s handling of past industrial accidents in the food sector suggests potential lines of inquiry. After a natural gas explosion at the R.M. Palmer chocolate factory in West Reading, Pennsylvania, in 2023 killed seven workers, OSHA cited that company for failing to evacuate employees who had reported smelling gas before the blast. Safety officials later emphasized the importance of robust hazard-recognition and evacuation procedures when flammable gases are present.

In Logan Township, investigators are expected to examine whether Savita identified and controlled explosion hazards associated with propane extraction, how its safety systems performed, and what training workers received on emergency response.

The explosion has also upended daily life for those closest to the plant. Employees at Sulzer and the food bank face an indefinite interruption to their work as their buildings await repairs. Residents near Pureland say they are reassessing what it means to live next to a complex where one accident can shake homes miles away.

For now, the charred shell of Savita Naturals stands behind police tape, its roof peeled back and walls buckled, as investigators pick through debris. Four workers remain in critical condition. The precise chain of events that turned a cocoa-butter and CBD extraction line into a fireball is still unclear.

What is clear is that a facility most consumers had never heard of, making ingredients for products found in kitchen pantries and wellness aisles, proved capable of producing an explosion powerful enough to rattle three states — and that regulators, companies and communities will be watching closely to see what lessons are drawn from what happened inside 617 Heron Drive.