PORT WENTWORTH, Ga. AP A poweful explosion that ignited in a storage silo at a sugar refinery killed at least three people, injured dozens of the more than 100 employees working the night shift and all but demolished the plant that’s been a core part of this small community’s economy for 90 years.

As firefighters pulled three bodies from the rubble of the Imperial Sugar Company refinery Friday, anxious families gathered at the parish hall of a Catholic church across the street wept as officials gave them the grim news.