ST.LOUIS _ Boiler safety is regulated almost uniformly across the nation, with standards that generally include periodic inspections by state inspectors or insurance companies.
The state of Missouri's fire safety division issues more than 20,000 certificates of inspection each year for boilers and pressure vessels, and says about 2,000 of those are found to be in dangerous condition.
But one little nook of the country _ famous for a big arch _ does things its own way.
The city of St. Louis is exempt from the Missouri law requiring regular inspections of high-pressure boilers by either a state inspector or insurance company. The city instead requires a company to have a licensed stationary engineer on site while a high-pressure boiler is in operation. The city runs the license process, which includes taking a class and passing a test.
That deviation from national boiler safety standards was revealed after an explosion on Monday that killed three people and injured four. St. Louis officials said a boiler launched out of Loy-Lange Box Co.and shot into the air, crashing 500 feet away into the offices of Faultless Healthcare Linen.
Loy-Lange employed three stationary engineers assigned to the company's two boilers. One of them, Kenneth Trentham, 59, was among the people killed. Authorities have not publicly identified the people killed at Faultless; the company declined to name them.
A woman who answered the door at Trentham's home Tuesday said only that his family was grateful for the well wishes expressed to them after his death.
The cause of the explosion was under investigation by the St. Louis Fire Department and the U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration.
There were no details available about what factors could have contributed to the explosion.
It was not known if the device had been inspected by an insurance company and issued a certificate that would have been acceptable under a standard process anywhere else. And it was not immediately known when St. Louis started doing things differently, or why.
The city insisted its system of regulating boiler operation was safe. Because the city mandates licensed engineers to operate high-pressure boilers, they are under constant inspection, rather than just once per year, said Maggie Crane, a spokeswoman for Mayor Francis Slay.
"You would risk losing your license if you're not doing your job," Crane said. "And it's not in the best interest of the company. Look at the risk, you just saw it in action. What good would it do to the company ... to not maintain (a boiler) or not have a stationary engineer."
Boiler safety experts said they strongly disagreed with that assessment.
Operating a boiler and inspecting a boiler are not the same task, said David A. Douin, executive director of the Columbus, Ohio-based National Board of Boiler and Pressure Vessel Inspectors.
"I think the city should have an inspection program and all their boilers and pressure vessels should be registered (with) commissioned inspectors doing the inspections just like everyone else in the United States," he said. "They're in a small, small, small minority by not having that equipment inspected on set frequencies."
Douin said an engineer who works for a company simply cannot be objective about the condition of a boiler.
"That's the whole thing about third-party inspection," he said. "You can be objective. You don't work for the company that owns the equipment. Like, your boss isn't going to say, 'Hey we need to do this production run today, can't we wait a couple weeks before we fix it?'"
John R. Puskar, president of Prescient Technical Services in Cleveland, a boiler safety expert, said he felt "jurisdictional inspections would always provide a level of reduced risk for boiler operations. The city of St. Louis would no doubt benefit from making this a requirement."
Meanwhile, employees of the two companies waited for answers. At Faultless, several employees taking breaks at a small table outside the building Tuesday said they did not know the two who had died Monday but had heard they were new employees. One man who had been in the building at the time of the accident said the building had "a little shake" before employees were told to evacuate.
The main office area of the building where the boiler landed and killed the two inside was cordoned off by police tape and a condemned sign with the word "office" written on it was taped on a window. A man was inspecting the roof with a small elevator crane. The company at the time said no one was available to discuss the incident.
"It just shows you things can happen when you least expect it," said Faultless employee Denise Shavers, who said she'd been with the company for three years.
Across the street at Pioneer Industrial Corp., a ventilation system had been set up to clear the air of the building that had been struck by a large pipe after the boiler exploded.
At Loy-Lange, there were no employees present outside the building. Two large windows were boarded up and "condemned" signs had been placed on the brick building. Representatives of the company could not be reached.
