The explosion at the Bayer Crop Sciences Plant in Institute happened around 10:25 Thursday night. The blast was felt for miles away and sent a fireball hundreds of feet into the air.

West Virginia Fire Marshal Sterling Lewis confirmed that the explosion has left one person dead and another injured.

The victim was sent to the Penn State burn unit. Officials from Homeland Security, firefighters, and plant workers all took quick action. It took six fire crews to get the blaze under control. The fire was in a section of the plant where waste products are treated before disposal.

As a precaution measure, Interstate 64, U.S. 60 and Route 25 near the plant were shut-down for several hours. A shelter in-place was in effect last night, but has now been lifted. All the roads are back open Friday morning.

Air monitoring found no sign of chemical exposure, either on or off the site, and a shelter-in-place advisory in the area was lifted at 2 a.m. Friday morning.

The chemical plant explosion is expected to create a shortage of the insecticide Larvin.

A spokesman for Bayer CropScience says the Institute plant is the only producer of Larvin. Nick Crosby says the chemicals involved in the explosion, methyl isobutyl ketone and hexane, both are used in the production of Larvin.

If you have property damage for the explosion you can call 304-767-6226.