Posted on 07/14/2010 9:39:07 AM PDT by RS_Rider
An explosion this morning at U.S. Steel's Clairton Works sent 15 people to area hospitals, at least five of them with critical injuries.
"These are burn injuries for the most part," said Dan Laurent, spokesman for West Penn Hospital, which was treating three patients, one in critical condition. "We're hearing that the scene on the ground is pretty bad."
A union official said no fatalities were reported. A company spokesperson did not immediately comment.
The first reports of the explosion came in about 9:45 a.m. as ambulances from around the Mon Valley were dispatched to the sprawling plant.
A fire was burning at the plant after noon, although officials described the situation as "stable," said Allegheny County spokesman Kevin Evanto.
UPMC McKeesport is being used as a decontamination center for workers, said UPMC spokeswoman Gloria Kreps. Officials expected six patients at UPMC Mercy, Uptown four in critical condition and four patients at UPMC Presbyterian, Oakland.
Jefferson Regional Medical Center was treating one worker for minor facial burns, said spokeswoman Candy Williams. She said they were expecting the arrival of another person, possibly a plant worker, who experienced chest pain while assisting on the scene.
A spokeswoman at the United Steelworkers' District 10 office, which represents all of Pennsylvania, said the explosion occurred in the mill's B Battery, an area where coke is made. She said it did not appear there were any fatalities.
A worker manning phones at the United Steelworkers' Local 1557 union hall in Clairton said the mill has nine batteries of ovens for making coke, a fuel made from coal that is used in blast furnaces to make steel. All were shut down after the explosion, the worker said.
(Excerpt) Read more at pittsburghlive.com ...
I imagine a six month moratorium on steel production is now being planned. We may have to nationalize the whole industry.
Dang! I know quite a few guys that work there.
Prayers.
When I saw ‘Clairton’, I immediately thought of The Deer Hunter.
Now may be a good time for the government to Nationalize the steel industry. Maybe we should close them all down and investigate them. s/
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“One shot” Fing A Great movie
I was unaware that any steel was made in Pittsburgh GMA anymore. (I remember as a kid driving by all the blast furnaces along the river and watching the skip cars loading material into the top).
My thoughts exactly.
IMHO, the greatest film ever made.
That picture brings back a childhood memory of my family stopping to pick up a paycheck at an office building at Weirton Steel where my Dad worked when I was about 4 years old. It was night and I still remember the orange glow of I think the coke batteries over a huge expanse of land.
Clairton does not make steel, just coke. Edgar Thompson works in Braddock, a couple of miles down river, still makes steel.
So no more soda for jew
Me, too. Final scene: God Bless America - still gets to me after many, many viewings
ding ding...gmta....
prayers up for the workers and their families....
The most devastating film ever made.
I had no idea there was still an operating steel mill in the US. Wow. How are these guys staying in business?
Absolutely. I have The Deer Hunter right behind me here in my library, but I can only manage to watch it about once a year. I recall that one critic describe it as "emotionally shattering", and it is. Schindler's List is also devastating, but more limited in its emotional range, which is uniformly depressing and painful.
The Deer Hunter takes you on a journey from Clairton, PA to Vietnam and back again through the eyes of people many of us can so easily identify with. The cast is so good that you momentarily forget who they are - or who they became - and absorb yourself in the unexpected complexities of their small-town lives and in the inextricable twists of life itself.
Coke production creates a number of toxic by-products like toluene, benzene, and other chemicals. Clairton is one of the few places left that can produce it and it has been a target of environmentalists in the past. I wouldn’t be surprised to this dreadful incident open a can of worms.
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