Clairton factory explosion live: Plumes of toxic smoke billow from US steel mill with one dead and several unaccounted for

The Allegheny County Health Department said it is monitoring the steel factory explosion and advised residents within 1 mile of the plant to remain indoors, close all windows and doors, set air conditioning systems to recirculate, and avoid drawing in outside air, such as using exhaust fans.

It said its monitors have not detected levels of soot or sulfur dioxide above federal standards.

In recent years, the Clairton plant has been dogged by concerns about pollution. In 2019, it agreed to settle a 2017 lawsuit for $8.5 million. Under the settlement, the company agreed to spend $6.5 million to reduce soot emissions and noxious odors from the Clairton coke-making facility.

The company also faced other lawsuits over pollution from the Clairton facility, including ones accusing the company of violating clean air laws after a 2018 fire damaged the facility’s sulfur pollution controls.

In 2018, a Christmas Eve fire at the Clairton coke works plant caused $40 million in damage. The fire damaged pollution control equipment and led to repeated releases of sulfur dioxide, according to a lawsuit. Sulfur dioxide is a colorless, pungent byproduct of fossil fuel combustion that can make it hard to breathe. In the wake of the fire, Allegheny County warned residents to limit outdoor activities, with residents saying for weeks afterward that the air felt acidic, smelled like rotten eggs and was hard to breathe.

In February, a problem with a battery at the plant led to a “buildup of combustible material” that ignited, causing an audible “boom,” the Allegheny County Health Department said. Two workers who got material in their eyes received first aid treatment at a local hospital but were not seriously injured.

Last year, the company agreed to spend $19.5 million in equipment upgrades and $5 million on local clean air efforts and programs as part of settling a federal lawsuit filed by Clean Air Council and PennEnvironment and the Allegheny County Health Department.

The fire at the Clairton plant knocked out pollution controls at its Mon Valley plants, but U.S. Steel continued to run them anyway, environmental groups said.

The lawsuits accused the steel producer of more than 12,000 violations of its air pollution permits.

U.S. Steel CEO David B. Burritt said ‘our top priority is the safety and well-being of our employees and the environment.’

“During times like this, U.S. Steel employees come together to extend their love, prayers, and support to everyone affected,’ he added.

In a statement, U.S. Steel said an ‘incident’ occurred at the plant’s coke oven batteries 13 and 14.

The company, now a subsidiary of Japan-based Nippon Steel Corp., said emergency teams were immediately dispatched to the scene, but it gave no other details about the cause of the explosions, casualties or damage.

The company’s CEO, David Burritt, said in the statement that U.S. Steel is working with authorities to investigate the cause.

Allegheny County Communications Director Abigail Gardner told CNN that officials will hold a press conference on the explosion before 3.30pm EST.

‘It felt like thunder,’ Zachary Buday, a construction worker near the scene, told WTAE-TV.

‘Shook the scaffold, shook my chest, and shook the building, and then when we saw the dark smoke coming up from the steel mill and put two and two together, and it’s like something bad happened.’

Local Melanie Dawn wrote on Facebook: ‘This explosion made our houses shake. I thought my son had hit his gas tank on the dirt bike.

‘My niece felt it on Chambers Street, I felt it on Shaw Avenue. My teenage son’s ears were ringing.’

Shapiro added that injured employees were transported to local hospitals to receive care, and search-and-rescue efforts remain active at the plant.

Pennsylvania Senator John Fetterman issues a statement after he rushed to the scene at the Clairton Coke Works plant on Monday.

US Senator John Fetterman, Democrat from Pennsylvania, speaks to reporters outside US Steel’s Clairton Coke Works following an explosion at the plant.

The explosion sent black smoke spiralling into the midday sky in the Monongahela Valley, a region of the state synonymous with steel for more than a century. An Allegheny County emergency services spokesperson, Kasey Reigner, said one person died in the explosion and two were currently believed to be unaccounted for. Multiple other people were treated for injuries, Reigner said.

Emergency crews rushed to the US Steel Clairton Coke Works plant Monday morning after locals heard a loud boom in the Pittsburgh-area facility.

At least nine people were taken to hospitals and were being treated for unspecified injuries.