Allegheny County confirmed a second death at the Clairton Coke Works more than 10 hours after mid-morning explosions rocked the Mon Valley plant.
The first deceased worker was identified by the county medical examiner as Timothy Quinn, 39. The name of the second had not been released early Tuesday.
The blasts also sent 10 workers to area hospitals.
Scott Buckiso, U.S. Steel’s senior vice president and chief manufacturing officer, said at a press conference outside that the plant was “stable” as of 4 p.m. Monday and that most areas were still operating.
Explosions occurred in coke batteries 13 and 14, Buckiso said, though he declined to comment on the cause, which he said is under investigation. He said the batteries were in good condition and were not in line for upgrades. The involved batteries are now shut down, and the rest of the plant is operating normally.
County and plant officials did not immediately provide information about the workers who died. In an evening press update, the county indicated that five of the injured people were in critical but stable condition.
Matt Brown, Allegheny County chief of emergency services, said the county police, the fire marshal and ATF were in the early stages of investigating the cause of the blast.
“Our focus right now is just continuing our search for one unaccounted person,” Brown said.
Breathe Project’s Breathe Cam captured the plume from the explosion.
Area residents were instructed to take precautionary measures for much of the day.
The Allegheny County Health Department initially asked residents within a mile of the plant to stay inside, “close all windows and doors, set HVAC systems to recirculate, and avoid activities that draw in outside air, such as using exhaust fans.” That advisory was lifted around 6:30 p.m.
Allegheny County Executive Sara Innamorato said during a late afternoon press conference that the department has not detected increased PM2.5 or sulfur dioxide emissions.
Nonetheless, knowledgeable observers drew comparisons to a 2018 fire at the plant that knocked out pollution control equipment for weeks, sending harmful emissions into nearby communities and prompting public outcry over air quality and oversight.
Morning explosion brings massive response
Allegheny County Emergency Services said a fire started around 10:50 a.m. at the plant about 20 miles south of Pittsburgh, considered the largest coking operation in North America.
“It was loud. Like ‘BANG!’ At first I thought it was a train because right after my back yard is the train tracks,” said nearby resident William Pearce of the explosion that shook his house. He looked outside and saw black smoke coming from the coke works.
Brown said 20 EMS agencies and 14 fire departments responded to the explosion alongside the Coke Works’ internal fire and medical responders.
At the scene, Clairton Mayor Richard Lattanzi told assembled reporters: “My heart goes out to everyone. These things are not supposed to happen and unfortunately they do happen from time to time.”
UPMC confirmed that two people were sent to UPMC Mercy, the region’s only level one trauma and burn center.
Allegheny Health Network hospitals received a total of seven patients. AHN Jefferson Hospital was treating five patients, who were discharged by late afternoon, while AHN Allegheny General Hospital and AHN Forbes Hospital are each treating one patient.
Company, state, federal officials react to explosion
“To the families affected, our hearts are with you,” U.S. Steel President and CEO David Burritt said in an evening press release. “We are committed to providing every possible resource and support during this unimaginably difficult time.”
The Clairton plant employs nearly 1,300 people.
“We will thoroughly investigate the cause of this incident,” Burritt pledged. “I end every meeting and every message with the words, ‘Let’s get back to work safely.’ That commitment has never been more important, and we will honor it.”
Buckiso said the company is offering an employee assistance program at a local union hall for any employees who want to “stop in and talk.”
Gov. Josh Shapiro posted on social media that the state “is in touch with local officials” as they respond to the blast. He noted that the state police and Emergency Management Agency are offering assistance to first responders, noting that the scene is still active and “folks nearby should follow the direction of local authorities.”
U.S. Sen. Dave McCormick wrote on social media that he was “monitoring this closely as additional details become available,” and joining his wife in “praying for all those endangered and their families.”
U.S. Sen. John Fetterman, who hails from Braddock, in interviews on the scene called the event “just absolutely tragic and I grieve for these families. And again I’m proud to stand with the steelworkers and be sure we do anything possible after this terrible tragedy.
“It just reminds people of how dangerous of a job that this is. … To me, it reminds me of that huge fire that happened Christmas Eve five to six years ago, and they were able to bounce back and in record time.”
Fetterman later visited the plant and emerged reporting a grim mood inside. “You can’t shut the plant down, people need to keep working while knowing what happened … to their coworkers.”
2018 fire and aftermath
The fire in 2018 was driven by maintenance failures that were later characterized, in legal proceedings, as endemic.
According to internal company documents uncovered in a lawsuit, the Christmas Eve fire Fetterman referenced was not an unexpected or isolated incident but the result of years of cutbacks on maintenance and repairs in a plant that is designed with little margin for error. The fire itself was a kind of tragedy of errors, with multiple equipment failures cascading into a football field-sized fireball that lasted for two hours and put the nearby communities at risk for months afterward.
The fire knocked pollution control equipment offline. According to a study published in 2021, the number of visits to doctor’s offices and emergency rooms for asthma nearly doubled in the ZIP code that includes Clairton during the time that the company’s pollution controls were down.
Stay vigilant — but for how long?
Dr. Deb Gentile, of Community Partners in Asthma Care, in Pittsburgh, said area residents should be particularly alert if they have underlying heart or lung conditions, as any surge in pollutants could cause immediate breathing problems, and in some people could raise the short-term risk of heart attack or stroke.
For how long? “That’s going to really depend on what the facility does and where the damage occurred,” said Gentile. Immediately following the 2018 fire, there were multiple exceedances of emission limits with documentable health effects, she said. “We certainly don’t want to be seeing continued release of pollutants into the air, seeing what happened last time.”
Though the county has not detected pollution levels above federal limits today, Gentile noted that the nearest monitor is in Liberty, while many people live closer to the plant.
Emissions also have chronic effects. Gentile said around 20% of Clairton-area kids have been diagnosed with asthma, and some neighborhoods have reported that around half of youth carry inhalers.
An old plant with new ownership
The Coke Works is part of the Downtown-based steel company’s trio of local industrial facilities, which also includes the Edgar Thomson Works centered in Braddock, and the Irvin Works in West Mifflin.
It is also a major source of emissions and scene of much county pollution control enforcement activity.
Breathe Project has said that the Clairton plant, built in 1901, raises cancer risk for county residents, notably including the 130,000 who it says live within a 5-mile radius. Pledged billion-dollar upgrades have been postponed, even amid millions of dollars in fines.
Breathe Project expressed concern that collapsed building materials could be kicking up “hazardous air pollutants, including asbestos, heavy metals and possibly benzene.” The group tallies $64 million in fines and enforcement actions related to air pollution since 2020 at U.S. Steel’s three local facilities.
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.
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 the December 2018 fire damaged the plant’s sulfur pollution controls.
The plant converts coal to coke, a key component in the steel-making process. According to the company, it produces 4.3 million tons (3.9 million metric tons) of coke annually and has about 1,400 workers. It is part of the iconic domestic steelmaker, which is being acquired by Nippon Steel of Japan in a deal recently approved by President Donald Trump.
Charlie Wolfson is the local government reporter for Pittsburgh’s Public Source. He can be reached at charlie@publicsource.org.
The Associated Press contributed.
Editor’s note: This story was updated with comments and information received after initial publication.
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