FOLEY — An early morning explosion at UTC Aerospace Systems in Foley last week left two employees injured.

At approximately 7:45 a.m. Friday, Foley Fire Department responded to an E-911 call of a blast in building one of the six-building complex, which employs 800.

“It was isolated to one area of the plant,” said Foley Fire Chief Joey Darby, who responded with a full staff and equipment from Foley Fire Department. “There was no fire. There were no other explosions.”

Gulf Shores Fire Department’s full staff and Magnolia Springs Volunteer Fire Department.

The explosion, which UTC spokesman Andrew Martin said “involved metal cutting,” left one employee with injuries requiring an air-lift to University of South Alabama Regional Burn Center in Mobile. Another employee was less severely injured and taken by automobile to South Baldwin Regional Medical Center in Foley. Martin said that in order to protect its employees’ privacy, names of the injured would not be released.

Foley Fire Chief Joey Darby commended UTC’s emergency protocol, which involved a full evacuation of the area “which is what we prefer them to do,” he said.

That also included action taken by UTC’s on-site first-responders, which Darby said make calling E-911 a true vital emergency.

“We know if we get notification, there’s a potential for it to be very serious,” the Foley Fire chief said.

Martin agreed that Friday’s explosion fit that category, as this is the first time he’s heard of such an incident at UTC.

“I’m not aware of anything in recent history,” he said.

But with procedures in place to construct equipment for airplanes, helicopters, defense programs and aerospace programs, Martin said those emergency procedures are there for a reason.

“Our first concern is always the safety of the employees,” he said.

Martin said UTC is working to determine what caused the explosion. But no results of that investigation had been released at press time.

Martin added that work at the Foley plant resumed within two hours of the incident.