Several people hurt in East Baltimore equipment explosion at Coca-Cola bottling plant
Updated: 6:52 PM EDT Mar 8, 2026
Four people were hurt after an incident involving carbon dioxide inside an East Baltimore bottling plant, Baltimore City fire officials said.Firefighters were called around 10:30 a.m. Sunday to the Coca-Cola Bottling Consolidated Co. facility on North Kresson Street, where firefighters were told there was an explosion involving equipment that handles carbon dioxide, according to the Baltimore City Fire Department. “It sounds like it was a high-pressure incident, so not so much an explosion but a process involves high pressure with carbon dioxide, and that was related to this,” said Deputy Chief Jacob VanGelder. “We called some of our other response partners, including MDE, who came out. It was quickly mitigated; it went smoothly on our end as far as I’m concerned.”Fire officials say four people were injured as a result of the incident. Two were taken to the hospital, while two were treated at the scene and released. Of the two taken to the hospital, fire officials said one has critical injuries while another has serious injuries but at last check is stable. The incident remains under investigation.Coca-Cola Consolidated sent a statement Sunday afternoon to WBAL-TV 11 News, saying:”We’re continuing to conduct a thorough investigation, but what we’ve learned is that earlier today, employees of an external vendor were injured while performing carbon dioxide-related work inside our facility at 701 N. Kresson St. in Baltimore, MD. Those individuals were immediately transported to a local hospital for evaluation and care. All our employees are safe and accounted for and our facility is anticipated to reopen soon.”
BALTIMORE —
Four people were hurt after an incident involving carbon dioxide inside an East Baltimore bottling plant, Baltimore City fire officials said.
Firefighters were called around 10:30 a.m. Sunday to the Coca-Cola Bottling Consolidated Co. facility on North Kresson Street, where firefighters were told there was an explosion involving equipment that handles carbon dioxide, according to the Baltimore City Fire Department.
“It sounds like it was a high-pressure incident, so not so much an explosion but a process involves high pressure with carbon dioxide, and that was related to this,” said Deputy Chief Jacob VanGelder. “We called some of our other response partners, including MDE, who came out. It was quickly mitigated; it went smoothly on our end as far as I’m concerned.”
Fire officials say four people were injured as a result of the incident. Two were taken to the hospital, while two were treated at the scene and released. Of the two taken to the hospital, fire officials said one has critical injuries while another has serious injuries but at last check is stable.
The incident remains under investigation.
Coca-Cola Consolidated sent a statement Sunday afternoon to WBAL-TV 11 News, saying:
“We’re continuing to conduct a thorough investigation, but what we’ve learned is that earlier today, employees of an external vendor were injured while performing carbon dioxide-related work inside our facility at 701 N. Kresson St. in Baltimore, MD. Those individuals were immediately transported to a local hospital for evaluation and care. All our employees are safe and accounted for and our facility is anticipated to reopen soon.”