An explosion at the Clairton Coke Works in Clairton, PA, killed at least one person and injured 10 people. One person remains missing.
Clairton is about 15 miles south of Pittsburgh.
Allegheny County emergency services spokesperson Kasey Reigner said officials treated multiple people for injuries.
Gov. Josh Shapiro said multiple explosions occurred, but Scott Buckiso, executive vice president and chief manufacturing officer for US Steel, confirmed the plant only had one explosion.
A coking plant produces coke from coal.
No, not the drug or drink. Coke is a porous, carbon-rich substance:
To make steel in a blast furnace, coal must first be turned into coke. Coke has a dual role in the steelmaking process. First, it provides the heat needed to melt the ore, and second, when it is burnt, it has the effect of ‘stealing’ the oxygen from the iron ore, leaving only the pure iron behind. In the coking plant, coal is heated in the absence of oxygen to 1250c. This removes any impurities in the coal, resulting in coke, which is a porous substance that is nearly all carbon.
The Clairton Coke Works “is considered the largest coking operation in North America.”
Sources told KDKA the explosion happened inside the “reversing room”:
UPDATE: The explosion at the Clairton Coke Works took place inside the “reversing room” of the 13/15 battery, multiple sources inside the plant tell me.It’s a room that acts as a mechanical regulator, making sure coal bakes evenly in the oven, I’m told.
Unfortunately, the plant has faced numerous problems:
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, on the Monongahela River about 20 miles (32 kilometers) south of Pittsburgh.The company also faced other lawsuits over pollution from the Clairton facility, including ones accusing the company of violating clean air laws after a December 2018 fire damaged the Clairton facility’s sulfur pollution controls.
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