One worker has been killed and another injured in an explosion and fire at the Bayer CropScience plant in Institute.

Kanawha County Emergency Management Director Dale Petry identified the victim of last night's accident as Barry Withrow, but didn't know his age or hometown. Petry didn't know the name of the injured worker, who was transferred to a Pittsburgh hospital.

State Department of Environmental Protection spokeswoman Kathy Cosco says that the chemical primarily involved in the fire was methyl isobutyl ketone.

Methyl isobutyl ketone, also called MIBK, is used in the production of the insecticide Larvin of which there is now expected to be a shortage. Cosco says the chemical isn't particularly toxic but highly flammable.

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.

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, about the time the fire was extinguished.

Bayer also produces methyl isocyanate, or MIC, which killed at least 15,000 people in a leak in Bhopal, India, in 1984. But Petry said that chemical is stored in steel-wrapped underground containers located far from the blast site.

The explosion occurred at about 10:25 p.m. and could be felt miles away. The fire was extinguished at about 2 a.m. The cause hasn't been determined.