A deflagration occurred at around 8:30 a.m. on September 21 during maintenance work at a production unit in the northern section of BASF's Ludwigshafen site in Germany, injuring two employees of an external contractor. BASF said both workers suffered burns and were treated initially by a company emergency physician before being transferred to a nearby hospital, where they were admitted for further treatment.
The incident occurred during what BASF described as scheduled revision or maintenance work.
The company did not identify the specific operating unit involved in its initial notice and did not disclose what maintenance activity was being performed when the deflagration occurred.
The cause remained unknown at the time of the announcement.
Following the incident, BASF deployed an environmental monitoring vehicle to check conditions around the site.
The company said no elevated environmental readings were detected.
Relevant authorities were notified of the event.
BASF did not report additional injuries or impacts outside the plant in its initial statement.
The company also did not disclose whether the incident caused equipment damage, a production shutdown or any reduction in operating capacity.
Ludwigshafen is BASF's headquarters and one of its principal integrated chemical production sites in Europe, hosting manufacturing operations across basic chemicals, intermediates, materials and specialty products.
As of the September 21 statement, BASF had not named the material involved, identified the exact unit affected or provided further details on the sequence that caused the deflagration.
