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Investigators from the U.S. Chemical Safety Board suspect that workers venting a natural gas line into an interior pump room released vapors that led to last week's deadly explosion at the ConAgra Slim Jim plant in Garner.

The release of natural gas came as a cluster of contract workers cleaned a 3-inch-diameter gas line being connected to a commercial water heater being installed at the plant. Their work came hours into a normal shift at the ConAgra Foods plant, in a pump room surrounded by nearly 300 employees.

''In my mind, that would have been a risky operation," said John Bresland, chairman of the Chemical Safety Board, at a news conference Thursday.

Anything as simple, and unavoidable, as the flick of a switch, the installation of a light bulb or the opening of a nearby refrigerator could have ignited the explosion, Bresland said. Investigators think the ammonia that choked and poisoned employees fleeing the plant that day was released as a result of the explosion and was not the cause of it.

Several contract workers are at the center of a federal and state investigation which could lead to fines and orders to change the way they do business. At least three companies besides ConAgra are thought to have had employees engaged in installing the commercial water heater.

''There is likely to be plenty of responsibility to go around before it's all said and done," said David Stradley, a lawyer who represents two ConAgra employees in a civil suit against Southern Industrial Constructors, a contract firm that received permits to install the water heater. Stradley said he expects to expand the list of companies targeted in his lawsuit.

CSB officials declined Thursday to release the name of the manufacturing company involved in installing the water heater. Asked why, lead investigator Don Holmstrom said he did not want to "unduly stress" the employees and their families by publicly discussing those operations.

One of the employees most severely burned in the explosion last week worked for the manufacturer of the water heater, Stradley said.

The investigation into ConAgra's explosion is far from over. The site is still too dangerous to be examined by Chemical Safety Board investigators. They have been relying on witness accounts, photographs from rescue teams and investigators from the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.

The Chemical Safety Board, an independent federal agency, hopes to wrap up its investigation in Garner in the coming weeks and will return to sites in Washington and Colorado to attempt to reconstruct the blast. It could be nine to 12 months before the board releases a final report.

State Department of Labor officials are also investigating ConAgra's explosion and practices at the plant.

Meanwhile, ConAgra officials are planning to resume production of Slim Jim meat snacks. According to a report filed with the federal Securities and Exchange Commission on Thursday, ConAgra hopes to resume production in August.

The company expects to resume work in the manufacturing area of the plant, where much of the meat is treated. The packaging area, however, will be closed for the foreseeable future, company spokesman Dave Jackson said. The company will shift some operations to a ConAgra plant in Ohio and hire outside vendors to keep up production in the short term.

ConAgra continues to pay its employees. Some have been tapped to help with cleanup efforts at the plant. Others could be asked to help kick-start operations at the plant in Ohio, Jackson said.

ConAgra officials still don't know whether, or how quickly, they'll be back in full swing in Garner. That puts hundreds of employees in limbo.

''We need them to hear us loud and clear," Garner Mayor Ronnie Williams said after Thursday's press conference. "We want them to rebuild and to employ our people, all of them."