Moments after an explosion erupted at a US Steel plant outside Pittsburgh on Monday, company firefighters, local responders and employees raced in to rescue people from the smoldering wreckage.
They were able to free one injured worker who was whisked to a hospital. But one more was still missing, and the area was too unstable to continue working, according to Matthew Brown, chief of Allegheny County Emergency Services.
A Pittsburgh-based crew from Pennsylvania Urban Search & Rescue was called in to help, some of whose members were already responding through their affiliations with local fire departments, Brown said. The team stabilised a wall at the plant and used an advanced camera to detect the missing employee. They pulled away the rubble and were able to extract the body of the worker, who died, reports AP.
Monday’s explosion, which was powerful enough to shake nearby homes, killed two workers and injured more than 10 others. Five people ranging in age from 27 to 74 remained hospitalised Tuesday including the rescued worker, who was in critical but stable condition, according to the Allegheny County Police Department. Three were at UPMC Mercy, the region’s only level-one trauma and burn center.
The massive plant along the Monongahela River in Clairton converts coal to coke, a key component in the steelmaking process. The facility is considered the largest coking operation in North America and is one of four major US Steel plants in Pennsylvania.
To make coke, coal is baked in special ovens for hours at high temperatures to remove impurities that could otherwise weaken steel. The process creates what is known as coke gas — a lethal mix of methane, carbon dioxide and carbon monoxide.
US Steel’s chief manufacturing officer, Scott Buckiso, said workers were conducting routine operations at the time of the accident.
Two loud booms that followed the initial blast were initially thought to be subsequent explosions, but Buckiso said they were from the activation of two relief pressure valves — a safety mechanism that operated as expected.
The cause of the explosion remained under investigation, and Democratic Gov. Josh Shapiro told reporters Tuesday that workers deserve an “answer for what happened.”
“We owe them the answers to their questions, and we owe them to never forget the sacrifices that occurred here yesterday,” Shapiro said. Before arriving at a news conference, he met with family members of a worker who died.
Allegheny County Executive Sara Innamorato told reporters she had assurances from US Steel that it would continue to cooperate fully with investigators.
“We all share a common goal. We want to get to the bottom of what happened, and we want to prevent it from happening ever again,” Innamorato said.
Shapiro also used the news conference to pay tribute to the workers who died. The county medical examiner’s office identified one as Timothy Quinn, 39, and the other was not identified, with his family requesting privacy.
CEO David Burritt called it an “extraordinarily difficult day” for a US Steel family that has “suffered heartbreaking losses.” According to the company, the plant has approximately 1,400 workers.
The company, he said, is working closely with local, state and federal authorities. He would not speculate about the cause of the explosion.
“We will share as much as we can, as soon as we can, and we will take every step necessary to keep our people safe,” Burritt said.
In September 2009, a maintenance worker was killed in a blast. And in July 2010, another explosion injured 14 employees and six contractors.
According to online OSHA records of workplace fatalities, the last death at the plant was in 2014, when a worker was burned and died after falling into a trench.
After the 2010 explosion, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration fined US Steel and a subcontractor $175,000 for safety violations. US Steel appealed its citations and fines, which were later reduced under a settlement agreement.