Officials said air monitoring found no ongoing public hazard after a shelter-in-place was lifted.
LOGAN TOWNSHIP, NJ — A powerful explosion tore through a commercial building in a South Jersey industrial park Wednesday afternoon, sending five people to hospitals and rattling neighborhoods across the region as emergency crews fought lingering fire and checked the air for hazards.
The blast at Savita Naturals, a company officials said processes cocoa butter for the chocolate industry, triggered a shelter-in-place order for nearby businesses and residents while crews assessed smoke and possible chemical risks. Four people hurt inside the building were listed in critical condition, and another person at a nearby facility was hospitalized after a medical emergency during the response. Investigators had not announced a cause by Wednesday night, and officials said the site stored large amounts of propane used in the production process.
The explosion happened about 2:36 p.m. at the Savita Naturals facility on the 600 block of Heron Drive in an industrial section of Logan Township known as Pureland. Within minutes, thick dark smoke rose above the low buildings and warehouses that line the complex, and first responders moved in from multiple agencies. Gloucester County officials said the blast caused extensive damage to the building and also damaged a neighboring property. Logan Township Police Chief Joseph Flatley, speaking near the site, called it a “terrible tragedy” and said the investigation would take time as crews worked through a dangerous scene.
Workers and residents described a jolt that felt more like a quake than an industrial accident. James Barber, who works in the complex, said he heard a loud boom and felt the building shake, then rushed outside and called 911 because he did not know if more explosions were coming. The impact was felt well beyond Logan Township, officials said, with reports from across Gloucester County and into nearby parts of Pennsylvania and Delaware. A doorbell camera from a nearby community captured the sharp sound of the blast just before 3 p.m., and other videos from the area showed debris thrown into trees as smoke poured from the damaged structure.
Officials said four people who were inside the Savita Naturals building at the time of the explosion were taken to hospitals and listed in critical condition. A fifth person, described as being in a nearby facility, was taken to the hospital after what authorities called a medical emergency during the response. A spokesperson for county officials said the owners of the business believed everyone who had been at the facility was accounted for, and investigators did not believe anyone was missing. Emergency crews worked around sections of the structure that had collapsed and around equipment scattered by the blast, while firefighters poured water onto the building for hours as pockets of fire continued to burn.
Rebecca Forand, the public information officer for the Gloucester County Prosecutor’s Office, said investigators knew that “a large amount of propane” was stored on the property and used in the production process, but she said the cause of the explosion remained under investigation. Several propane tanks were visible on site, officials said, and hazmat teams stayed in place to monitor a controlled burnoff of additional fuel. Flatley said officials were watching air quality and emphasized that the wider community was not facing an ongoing hazard, even as smoke drifted above the complex and crews restricted access to the area.
Gloucester County emergency management ordered residents and businesses within about a 2-mile radius of Heron Drive and High Hill Road to shelter in place as air monitoring was conducted near the site. The advisory was lifted shortly before 5 p.m. after officials said no hazards were detected in the air. Even after the shelter order ended, roads around the complex remained busy with emergency vehicles, and responders maintained a perimeter as technical rescue teams and specialized units worked through the damaged building. Officials did not say how long the scene would remain active, but they indicated monitoring would continue into the evening.
The blast renewed attention on industrial safety in a region that has seen major workplace disasters in recent years, including deadly explosions at manufacturing sites across the broader Mid-Atlantic. Local officials said the Logan Township incident was among the largest industrial accidents they could recall in the area, and they said the investigation would involve determining what triggered the initial explosion and whether equipment, stored fuel, or a production process failed. Authorities did not release the names of the injured Wednesday, and they did not describe the specific work underway at the time of the explosion or whether the facility was operating at full capacity.
Investigators planned to continue collecting evidence once the site was stable, including examining the damaged structure, reviewing any available surveillance footage, and interviewing employees and witnesses. Officials did not announce any charges or enforcement actions, and they did not give a timeline for preliminary findings. Flatley said more information would be released when it became available, and county officials said they would continue to share updates as the investigation moves forward. By Wednesday night, firefighters and hazmat personnel were still on scene, with air monitoring expected to continue as crews worked around stored fuel and debris.
The explosion left a sprawling section of the decades-old building in rubble, with torn metal and broken walls visible from the edge of the industrial park. Nearby workers described an afternoon that quickly shifted from routine to chaos as smoke filled the sky and emergency sirens echoed through the complex. Officials said the immediate public safety threat had eased after the air checks and the end of the shelter order, but they cautioned that the investigation was still in its early stages.
Author note: Last updated March 4, 2026.