BlackMag3 Owner is Serving 10-20 Years After Plant Explosion

Status
Not open for further replies.
arcticap

arcticap

Member
Joined
Mar 20, 2005
Messages
8,717
Location
Central Connecticut
The owner of the BlackMag3 powder plant that exploded in 2010 received 10 - 20 years in prison after losing his trial in 2013.
In 2015, he lost his appeal to the New Hampshire Supreme Court and is serving his sentence.
Before his trial. he was hit with $1.2 million in OSHA fines for plant violations that led to the explosion.
In July, 2015, a key witness in his trial was murdered during a home invasion which would have made his retrial unlikely.
He was never allowed to post bail during his appeal.
The plant owner also owned MDM Muzzleloaders.

There's some interesting details about how the plant was being operated that led to the massive explosion and the 2 deaths that were previously posted on THR.
For instance, one employee quit after working at the plant for only 6 days citing his safety concerns to the owner who made him sign a letter of resignation for an entirely different reason.
Then the plant exploded 9 days later.
The murdered witness testified that they were given instructions to fill a machine while it was running which led to powder in the air that caused the explosion. The owner was trying to meet a deadline for a large pre-paid powder order.
Coupled with all of the safety violations, the owner , Craig Sanborn, 66, of Maidstone, Vermont, was convicted in 2013 of two counts of manslaughter and two counts of negligent homicide.
He signed an agreement with OSHA to never manufacture powder again.
While I knew about the plant explosion, I didn't know about the conviction until today when I stumbled upon it while searching for info. about BlackMag3.
Every link offers some information depending on how many details that a person wants to know about, but I covered most of the bases.

1. Sanborn loses appeal over gunpowder plant explosion --->>> https://www.conwaydailysun.com/berl...cle_90a280fe-6900-59fa-870a-5d88ec73a8e4.html

2. N.H. gunpowder plant owner gets 10-20 years in deadly blast --->>> https://www.cbsnews.com/news/nh-gunpowder-plant-owner-gets-10-20-years-in-deadly-blast/#:~:text=gunpowder plant owner gets 10-20 years in deadly blast,-November 29, 2013&text=LANCASTER, N.H. - A gunpowder plant,two workers in New Hampshire.

3. Vt. firm banned from explosive biz after NH blast --->>> https://bangordailynews.com/2011/07/04/news/vt-firm-banned-from-explosive-biz-after-nh-blast/

4. Killing of witness in gunpowder plant blast imperils retrial --->>>
https://www.eagletribune.com/news/n...cle_a825b984-c9b5-5b48-b19d-6e27a5caa03b.html

5. THR Threads
Muzzle Loader Factory Explosion: NH --->>>
https://www.thehighroad.org/index.php?threads/muzzle-loader-factory-explosion-nh.523075/

black powder explosion kills two --->>> https://www.thehighroad.org/index.php?threads/black-powder-explosion-kills-two.523088/

6. Guilty! Jury Holds Factory Owner Accountable for Blast that Killed Two Workers
The Coos County, N.H. prosecutor told jurors during Craig Sanborn's trial for manslaughter and reckless homicide that Sanborn was motivated by greed and failed to take safety measures that would have protected employees
--->>> JUST CLICK TO TURN OFF THE POPUP https://www.ehstoday.com/safety/art...accountable-for-blast-that-killed-two-workers
 
Last edited:
I get that the business was firearm related, but this seems to be more about the workings of the labor dept and justice system than about guns. I do see the points of accountability being useful, but I seriously doubt many large scale manufacturers would get their insight from a online forum. It’s a sad situation, and as a safety engineer I can read right through all the BS and see what happened. It’s all about culture in the workplace. There is a balance between safe operation and production, and each person has their own version of where the balance point is. Everybody says safety first, and they mean it, but then what comes second third and fourth may pull another direction which can lead to accidents, especially under strains to make a deadline. It may seem callous to say it, but modern manufacturing weighs overall risk and let’s that drive business. Late fees and lost contracts are a risk just like workers compensation claims, legal matters like EPA compliance or wrongful death suits. The marker is never set at perfection, but always at “good enough” and once the risk of loss (any type) is minimized to meet that particular persons personal point of being good enough then That’s where the money and improvement stops. In this case the balance clearly was not weighed heavily enough on employee safety, which means that production deadlines were valued and pulled the “good enough” balance point too far to the unsafe side. Similarly, a focus can be so heavy on safety that the job becomes impossible which is the opposite extreme that few people ever fall into as there is no monetary benefit.
 
I've been posting about powder plant explosions lately and how some of them went out of business.
In some cases there was a long history of explosions and deaths which isn't uncommon with black powder manufacturing.
Hazard, Goex, Blackmag3, American Pioneer and the Goex black powder plant in PA.

Other plants that burned, exploded and led to death were the Hodgdon Pyrodex plant in 1977 which killed the inventor, and the then new Goex "Clear Shot" plant in the early 2000's.
Imagine investing in building a new plant to make a new product and soon after years of waiting for production to take off, the plant burns down.
And then it was never rebuilt and the formula and product is lost for the consumers.
There were months that turned into years of announcements through magazine ads to build consumer anticipation that Clear Shot would soon be for sale on store shelves.
It was briefly, but why didn't Goex rebuild?
We know, for the same reason that TC never made another Seneca or Cherokee rifle or Patriot pistol.
It was due to fire and the steep price to retool, and not always because of the quality of the product.
At least the plant explosion didn't kill off Pyrodex as a consumer product.

"Pyrodex, developed by Daniel Pawlak and Michael Levenson, has not been without its problems. Dan Pawlak was killed in January 1977 when his powder plant exploded. The patent application was filed on July 25, 1975. So much for the safety of manufacture; it is a tragedy. Nevertheless, the harder-to-ignite Pyrodex is safer to handle from a consumer perspective. Hard enough to ignite that the "igniter pad" on Pyrodex pellets (made from Pyrodex RS) remains good old blackpowder to this day. Toxicity of Pyrodex persists-though no formal studies have been conducted. Perchlorate poisoning is a well-known issue, as monitored by the EPA.

Though corrosive and toxic, Pyrodex itself has not been easily displaced. The Goex "Clear Shot," held promise-but when this fructose based powder plant caught fire, again someone got killed. That was the commercial end of Clear Shot, and Goex left their distributors hanging out to dry."
--->>> https://www.randywakeman.com/theProblemsofBlackpowder.htm

I think that it's important to realize that people die or are injured while making BP and sub. propellants for us because it's a hazardous business.
Just as it's also hazardous for people to make their own black powder as is the sport itself, in that one can ever take safety for granted.
We can only hope that each plant explosion will be the last and that everyone practices safe shooting.
That's one reason why we're here answering questions and exploring topics with people from all over the world.
When we turn over some rocks, we never know what can be found and learned from.
Even if it's only about interesting news that's related to old posts that can no longer be commented on, it provides some closure to be added to the archives for posterity.
 
Last edited:
I suspect as much as anything over time people working around dangerous things start to think they are smarter than they really are and take risks they should not, but think they can because it can't happen to them.

There are reasons why explosives are manufactured and handled in small lots as best one can. They are just one spark away from igniting, or one big shock from detonating.
 
I remember a guy, friend of mine way back in the 80's, who reloaded his own. He was a smoker and used a Zippo lighter. One day he went outside to smoke and on his way back refilled his lighter. He always fiddled with his lighter in his pocket and that day was no exception. Yup, he had lighter fluid on his hands. Something on his workbench sparked, to this day I don't know what, and his bench went BOOM! Fortunately his workshop was an out building and not in his house. I was there but not in the workshop. I was helping box up rounds. Years he spent going for skin grafts and when the Navy took me away from back East we lost touch many years ago. Even on a small scale home bench this stuff is dangerous.
 
Sanborn is an idiot who took numerous dangerous shortcuts. Sanborn failed to properly train his employees. Rather that store the manufactured product in an outside building/containers, Sanborn had it piled up inside the manufacturing building. There was a previous accident where an employee was badly injured.
 
I certainly haven't researched any of these cases but I have worked in a capacity directly involved with workplace safety in a different industry where highly hazardous materials were in abundance including being an integral team member for hazard and operability studies and risk mitigation.

Many items in powder form can become an explosion hazard and require appropriate industrial controls not only for risk to workers but additionally the surrounding area to address those risks. Grain elevators, flour milling plants, sugar mills, in my industry petroleum coke fines - so while the substance being manufactured in this case may be novel, the risks and control measures as well as responsibilities weren't. I don't understand how any sort of manufacturing permit was ever granted for the material in the OP's headline case considering not just the material but the building being shared with a church of all things.

https://www.ehstoday.com/safety/art...accountable-for-blast-that-killed-two-workers

Adjectives used by OSHA in this case like "Willful" and "Egregious" reflect the reality such risks and ways to reduce such risks associated with these materials were nothing novel or unique at the time of this incident.

Investigation of events like this typically reveal a matrix of causal factors rather than a single cause. Clearly this had the potential to have been much worse if the timing of the explosion had coincided with a simultaneous church service.:(
 
Last edited:
Mr. Zorg said:
I don't understand how any sort of manufacturing permit was ever granted for the material in the OP's headline case considering not just the material but the building being shared with a church of all things.
Click to expand...

Sanborn had a BATFE permit to manufacture the propellant. OSHA was not aware that the operation existed. On an old computer i have about a dozen files pertaining to this train wreck. A safety guy from the state of New Hampshire attempted to persuade Sanborn to move his operation into several outside shipping containers, to no avail. Despite the fact that Sanborn is an master electrician, he refused to install remote starting systems for his machines.

Another company, Magkor, run by Giovanni Brus, owns/owned the manufacturing rights to Black Mag. The safety officer of that firm attempted to have the equipment moved a safe location. Person/s of that firm testified against Sanborn in court.

The denial of appeal by the New Hampshire Supreme Court:


"Magkor’s president, Giovanni Brus, testified that, in the pre-production phase, he gave the defendant safety specifications written by Magkor’s explosives safety authority, Jerry Hall. These safety specifications included a diagram showing the proper layout for a facility producing the gunpowder. It also called for minimum distances between the machines, bunkering or barricading between the machines, and remote operation of the machines from a distance of 150 feet. Brus testified that the purpose of providing these safety specifications was “to make sure that whoever is subcontracted to produce the powder would realize the possible danger if they don’t follow certain guidelines as far as the facility and production.

”Peter Keddy, the defendant’s electrician, installed electrical wiring at the facility in 2009. He testified that in an area that is dusty or where there are explosive vapors, an electrician would normally install wiring resistant to dust or explosive vapors. However, the defendant —himself a master electrician —told Keddy that, because of the type of ventilation system used, there would not be any hazardous debris or dust in the facility. Based upon these representations, Keddy used standard wiring. He also noticed that standard wiring, installed by someone else, existed throughout the facility andthat there was a ceiling-mounted gas heater with an open flame in the area of the machines.1The record does not further explain what is intended by the term “shipping container.”"

https://law.justia.com/cases/new-hampshire/supreme-court/2015/2013-088-0.html

Sanborn ripped off a Maine town and was charged with fraud.

https://bangordailynews.com/2014/01...ible-for-deaths-in-gunpowder-plant-explosion/
 
Last edited:
I was wondering more about how a business permit from the authorities of that town, allowing explosives manufacturing in a building shared with a church, was ever green-lighted.
 
I'll probably be hated for this but I can't shoot BP inside my shop into a bullet trap because of the smoke and what it may do to the electronics. That "Clearshot" you guys were talking about, was that by chance a smoke less substitute? I wish someone would come up with an indoor powder.
 
No, the Goex Clear Shot was not a smokeless substitute.
It was another ascorbic acid based powder derived from fructose or fruit sugar.
Maybe less smokey than some of the others.
 
Last edited:
HisSoldier said:
I'll probably be hated for this but I can't shoot BP inside my shop into a bullet trap because of the smoke and what it may do to the electronics. That "Clearshot" you guys were talking about, was that by chance a smoke less substitute? I wish someone would come up with an indoor powder.
Click to expand...
I was looking several years for a straight smokeless substitute for black powder. The only one I know of is Blackhorn 209. But, as its name indicates, shotgun 209 primer is required. Ordinary cup is not strong enough.
 
HisSoldier said:
I'll probably be hated for this but I can't shoot BP inside my shop into a bullet trap because of the smoke and what it may do to the electronics. That "Clearshot" you guys were talking about, was that by chance a smoke less substitute? I wish someone would come up with an indoor powder.
Click to expand...

Air pistols & rifles are a good alternative for relatively clean indoor shooting.
And there's a wide variety of models available, a lot more than shown in this old thread. --->>> https://www.thehighroad.org/index.php?threads/remington-1875-co2-replica-revolver.844570/
 
alsaqr said:
BH 209 contains a large slug of potassium perchlorate which is not found in smokeless powder.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6614743/
Click to expand...

When is first came out, BH 209 was often referred to by consumers as being a progressive burning smokeless powder.
Even though that erroneous smokeless label has since been corrected, some people still think that it's smokeless because it has a nitrocellulose base.
It's actually fortunate that the formula varies enough from smokeless to allow it to be classified as a propellant so that it can remain legal for ML hunting use as a substitute powder in all of the states.
If it were strictly a smokeless powder, then it's use would be restricted for ML hunting by many states which is sort of a Catch-22.
If it''s a hybrid powder then it's hybrid and not a true, pure smokeless powder which makes more consumers happy than if it were simply smokeless.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.

Similar threads

S
  • Locked
Explosions at Lousiana Army Ammunition Plant : GOEX located there.
Replies
3
Views
2K
Manyirons
M
arcticap
  • Locked
The Hazard Powder Company (1836-1913)
Replies
16
Views
1K
Patocazador
Patocazador
S
  • Locked
Gunpowder Mills on Powder Mill Road
Replies
2
Views
708
Captain*kirk
C
S
  • Locked
MO: Three fatally shot at manufacturing plant
Replies
10
Views
502
clange
C
C
  • Locked
China: "Business dispute ends in suicide blast in East China"
Replies
7
Views
448
cuchulainn
C
Back
Top