Explosion at US Steel plant near Pittsburgh leaves dozen hurt or buried in rubble

An explosion at a U.S. Steel plant near Pittsburgh left dozens injured or trapped under the rubble Monday, with emergency workers on site trying to rescue them, officials said.

There are no confirmed fatalities at the Clairton Coke Works, said Abigail Gardner, director of communications for Allegheny County. The explosion sent black smoke spiralling into the midday sky in the Monongahela Valley, a region synonymous with the state for more than a century.

“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.”

Allegheny County Emergency Services said a fire at the plant started around 10:51 a.m. and that it has transported five people. The agency did not provide any more details on those people transported.

An Allegheny County emergency services spokesperson, Kasey Reigner, said dozens were injured and the county was sending 15 ambulances, on top of the ambulances supplied by local emergency response agencies.

The plant, a massive industrial facility along the Monongahela River south of Pittsburgh, is considered the largest coking operation in North America and is one of four major U.S. Steel plants in Pennsylvania that employ several thousand workers.

The Allegheny County Health Department said its monitors have not detected levels of soot or sulfur dioxide above federal standards.

The plant converts coal to coke, a key component in the steel-making process. According to the company, it produces 4.3 million tons of coke annually and has approximately 1,400 workers.