A contract worker injured in a boiler explosion at International Paper Vicksburg Mill was released from a Georgia burn center last week, exactly two months after the blast. Three others remain in critical condition at the hospital.

Like most others injured in the May 3 explosion, the worker released from Joseph M. Still Burn Center in Augusta, Ga., Thursday was not identified. Beth Fritz, a spokesman for the hospital, said the patient had been at the hospital since the day of the explosion, which killed one man.

Those listed in critical condition at the burn center include brothers Robert T. “Terry” and Kenneth Townsend, industrial insulators employed by M-Co Inc., who were working on the exterior of the boiler. The third person at the hospital has not been identified.

In total, 17 were injured at the mill on Mississippi 3 near Redwood. All were contract employees. The recovery boiler had been taken off-line for routine service, maintenance and repairs. About 400 people, including IP’s 306 regular employees, were at the mill when the boiler exploded.

Killed was 28-year-old Marcus Christopher Broome, who had a wife and twin 4-year-old daughters. Like the Townsends, Broome was an industrial insulator with M-Co Inc.

Two lawsuits have been filed. A damage case on behalf of 52-year-old Glen Rankin of Claiborne County was filed May 14 in Warren County Circuit Court by attorney Robert F. Wilkins, The suit says Rankin was slammed backward into a wall. He was treated and released from River Region Medical Center. The suit says IP was negligent and seeks $1 million and punitive damages.

In a response filed June 16, IP denied negligence, saying that Rankin “may have failed to exercise reasonable care for his own safety at and immediately prior to the time of the occurrence of his injury,” and that he “is barred from recovering any damages that could have been avoided by mitigation.”

A second lawsuit was filed June 16, but in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Mississippi. It was filed by attorney William M. Quin of Jackson, who is representing the Townsend brothers. As in Rankin’s suit, the Townsends’ complaint claims IP was negligent. Their suit seeks unspecified compensatory and punitive damages.

In other legal actions since the blast, Circuit Judge Isadore Patrick signed an order June 12, that will allow IP to repair the recovery boiler. That followed an announcement by the company that it planned to make repairs and reopen the plant, one of the county’s largest employers.

The IP explosion came about two weeks before the sixth anniversary of a deadly blast at the Rouse Polymerics plant on U.S. 61 South. Five people were killed and seven were injured.