LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WAVE) – A terrifying moment rocked the Clifton neighborhood on Tuesday and left residents right next to the Givaudan Color Sense Factory picking up the pieces.

Randy Crumley was among those residents. Debris from the Givaudan factory shattered the windows of his Payne Street home and left his kitchen full of debris and broken appliances. He was heading into that room when the explosion occurred.

“I would have been blown to pieces like that. I would look like that door,” Crumley said, pointing to a broken door in the middle of his kitchen. “I’d be dead.”

The explosion was Crumley’s nightmare come true.

The owner said he has reported the factory several times over the years for what he claims are dangerous actions on their part.

“I called pollution control on them many times. I called them directly. I go to the fence and yell at them because they just don’t care,” Crumley said. “They are noisy. They have an alarm that goes off and then they just ignore their alarms. They send ammonia gas here where they can’t even breathe. There’s stuff coming out of there that ends up on your car and Goo-Gone won’t even take it off.

Crumley is upset, saying the company never responds to his complaints and this time was no different.

“It’s a masterclass in what happens when you don’t listen to your poor dear Uncle Randy when he tries to tell you when something is wrong with your factory,” Crumley said. “Now all of a sudden I’ve got a piece of metal there, a spaceship behind it, my car is God knows what, and then I didn’t hear anything from them. Not a thing.”

A former worker who was employed at the plant from 2015 to 2016 before it was acquired by Givaudan spoke to WAVE News anonymously about the problems they saw at the plant during the time former DD Williamson was there.

Givaudan acquired the factory in 2021.

The former employee claimed there were “a lot of things” wrong there, including a lack of basic supervision.

They said the boilers were left unattended and at risk of overheating, as well as a lack of proper cleaning between runs, little preparation for cleaning chemicals such as ammonia and understaffing. They argued that there was an emphasis on production over safety.

All of this played directly into this former employee’s decision to leave the factory, even when he was offered the opportunity for advancement.

We have reached out to the company for comment on the allegations against them, but have yet to hear back.

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