One day after what would’ve been Kevens Dawson’s 50th birthday, family and friends of the Kentucky man whose body was found amid the rubble from the Nov. 13 Louisville plant explosion still want to know why it took nearly eight hours for officials to determine he had not made it out alive.
Dawson was a U.S. Army veteran who learned the military’s lessons well. Show up on time, provide for your family, and, most importantly, leave no man behind, said his girlfriend, Malakia Watson, at a news conference Monday. “Why would you leave him behind?”
Watson learned of the factory blast — which happened around 3 p.m. and injured 11 people and killed two, including Dawson — while picking up her son from school around 4 p.m. She rushed to the site, having arranged for other family members to care for her child.
“I gotta go get my boyfriend. I gotta get him out of there,” she recalled thinking.
The plant was leveled by the blast, caused, safety officials later determined, by a failure in a cooking vessel. Givaudan is a Swiss-owned company that makes caramel coloring for food products and dyes for cosmetics
When Watson arrived at the scene, she was led to an area where employees had gathered. No sign of her boyfriend.
Don’t worry, Watson was reassured, everyone had been accounted for and there were no fatalities. So where was KD?
He must be among the injured, at one of three local hospitals, Watson was told. She visited each one, but none had registered a patient named Dawson. A nagging feeling something wasn’t right, a feeling she first experienced that morning, when Dawson left for work, had become overwhelming.
“I went to the hospital. I went to every hospital,” Watson said. “I didn’t make it back until 7 o’clock. (They) said, ‘go home,’ and I told (them) ‘No, you go home. I’m going to get KD.'”
She returned to the still smoldering plant, where she was prevented from entering. Watson said by this point she knew KD was still inside. Determined to reach him, she snuck past a barricade, ducking under the yellow tape, cutting up her legs in the process.
First responders begged her to leave, saying conditions were too dangerous. Okay, she told them, as long as you pray with me first.
Officers walked her back to the barricade, where she would wait another four hours until plant officials told her what she already knew.
Dawson had been mistakenly overlooked due to a “miscommunication” that led them to “believe that all individuals were accounted for” after employees has been evacuated, Givaudan spokesperson Jeff Peppet told The Louisville Courier-Journal.
“Not until 11:30 p.m. did they say, ‘Oh, we found someone else.’ It’s too late,’ ” Watson said. “I told you at 4:30 p.m. to go get him.”
Dawson’s namesake said he last talked to his father a couple of days before his death.
“My father was a man of principle, respect [and] love,” said Keven Dawson III, 32. The elder Dawson had three children. “He raised us all to respect others, work hard and dream. My father was an ex-vet and the leader of our family, and all-in-all the most impactful man I ever knew. He always gave, even when it inconvenienced him.”
The family says many questions about Dawson’s death remain unanswered. They’ve retained well-known Florida civil rights attorney Benjamin Crump to represent them.
“I just never thought that his commitment to work would lead to his final days,” Dawson III said. “All my dad wanted to do is provide and work hard and I just can’t help feeling that my father really worked himself to death.”
“We’re very devastated and we just want our answers,” he continued. “We want justice. We want peace.”
Stefanie Lauber, head of corporate communications for Givaudan Sense Colour, told the Courier-Journal the company was “deeply saddened” by the tragedy.
Our priority right now is on our team members, the families of those we have lost and those that were injured in this accident,” Lauber said. “We are in touch with them, and committed to supporting them in the coming days and weeks.”
But Kevens Dawson III said his family didn’t hear from the company for days after the explosion.
“Nobody cares,” he said. “How far can you sweep somebody under the rug, you know what I mean?”
The Louisville plant previously experienced an explosion in April 2003 that killed one worker and triggered a “massive release of aqua ammonia,” The Courier Journal reported. It was caused by an over-pressurized feed tank. Givaudan had not yet purchased the facility.
The Swiss company was issued two citations last year by the Louisville Metro Air Pollution Control District for failing to submit annual reports and failure to submit notices of excess emissions, which district regulations mandate. Givaudan resolved both cases through settlements with the district totaling $7,500.
