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 MIDDLETOWN, Conn. (AP) - Authorities launched a criminal investigation Monday into the cause of an explosion that killed five people at a power plant under construction, saying they couldn't rule out negligence.
"If everything went right, we wouldn't all be here right now," Middletown Mayor Sebastian Giuliano said. "There's a point where negligence raises to the level of criminal conduct, and that's what we're investigating."
The powerful explosion blew apart large swaths of the nearly completed 620-megawatt Kleen Energy plant as workers for the construction company, O&G Industries Inc., were purging a gas line Sunday morning. The blast tore apart sheet metal that covered the plant's sides and left parts of the complex so unstable that rescuers were unable to work Monday because of the danger of collapse.
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