A spokeswoman says a patient hospitalized at a burn center in Augusta after a sugar refinery explosion near Savannah has died.

Michael Kelly Fields died, 40, at 2:14 a.m. Thursday at the Joseph M. Still Burn Center at Doctors Hospital, spokeswoman Beth Frits said.

Frits said 14 people burned during the explosion a week ago at the Imperial Sugar Company plant in Port Wentworth remained hospitalized in critical condition Thursday. Two others were in serious condition.

The latest death brings to eight the number of people killed in the explosion. Seven other people have been found dead in the rubble at the plant. One worker was still missing.

An explosion of sugar dust as powerful as a bomb blast is thought to be the cause of the Feb. 7 blast. Emergency crews were able to snuff out the fire at the plant's main building Wednesday, but the blaze persists at the refinery's 80-foot silos. Local crews had to call in a specialized team with powerful equipment to assault the blaze.

The refinery is located on a 160-acre site on the Savannah River upstream from Savannah. The plant is 872,000 square feet, and 111,000 square feet — about 12 percent — was destroyed, company spokesman Steve Behm said.