NEWBURGH — The industrial firm whose Newburgh plant was the site of a raging chemical fire Saturday describes itself in marketing materials as a "high-tech contract manufacturer" specializing in the development of "disruptive technology,” but three former employees who spoke to the Courier & Press said conditions at the company’s Newburgh facility were unsafe.

And according to public records and legal filings, the company, PBTT Corp., was found last year to have violated a state permitting rule and has been repeatedly accused in civil lawsuits of failing to make thousands of dollars in payments to vendors.

“I told my wife as soon as I heard there was a chemical fire that it must be PBTT,” one of the former employees, Tony McCollom, said in an interview. "I knew that place was headed to

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