A day after an explosion killed two workers at a U.S. Steel plant, age-old questions were raised on Tuesday about the safety of the inherently dirty and dangerous business that has defined the Pittsburgh region for more than a century.
Officials expressed relief that the air showed no discernible traces of sulfur oxide, which can hamper breathing, and they promised a full accounting of what happened when a routine Monday morning at the Clairton Coke Works was shattered by a gas explosion in two battery ovens.
One of the dead is Timothy Quinn, 39, a second-generation steelworker and father of three who was described as a leader with a wry sense of humor. The other worker who was killed has not been publicly identified at the family’s request. Ten other people were injured in the explosion.
“We owe them an answer for what happened,” Gov. Josh Shapiro said at a news conference on a scorching Tuesday afternoon after meeting with the loved ones of the steelworkers who died. “We owe them the answers to their questions, and we owe them to never forget the sacrifices that occurred here yesterday.”
The mill is one of three plants that are part of the recent $15 billion merger between U.S. Steel and the Japanese company Nippon Steel. The Biden administration had blocked the deal, but the Trump administration approved it in June. The merger was hailed as a victory for the region as Nippon pledged to pump $2 billion into the mill, which sits along the Monongahela River about 15 miles south of Pittsburgh.
But Monday’s explosion brought to the fore the troubled safety history at the mill, where coal is converted through heat into coke that later is melted into liquid steel.
They were the first deaths at the mill since 2014, according to Occupational Safety and Health Administration records, and it rekindled memories of a Christmas Eve fire in 2018 that caused $40 million in damage and sent scores of people to seek help for respiratory problems. In 2019, the mill was fined $8.5 million to settle an air pollution lawsuit, and last year it was fined $2 million by the county health department for air pollution. It agreed to invest $19.5 million in equipment upgrades to settle a federal lawsuit.
In February, a fire sent two steelworkers to the hospital after the heating and cooling equipment on a battery failed, and in June, a breakdown in a control room resulted in elevated sulfur dioxide levels.
Five of the 10 people hospitalized after the blast were released on Monday. The remaining five are men, ages 27 to 74, and all were in critical but stable condition as of Tuesday evening, according to the health department.
In a news conference, David Burritt, the chief executive of U.S. Steel, promised that the company would cooperate with local, state and federal authorities who are beginning to investigate the explosion.
Mr. Burritt was taken aback when a reporter relayed a conversation with a plant worker who described U.S. Steel as reactive and uninterested in preventative maintenance.
“I’m shocked and outraged at that statement,” he said. “I find it unbelievable because of safety being in our DNA. This is the first thing we cover in our board meetings. We take this extraordinarily seriously. If there’s any issue where people feel at risk, I need to understand it. We value the facts and we will act on the facts.”
Richard Lattanzi, the mayor of Clairton, a hamlet whose fortunes have mirrored the coke plant’s, worked for U.S. Steel for 30 years, including eight as a safety inspector. His son works at a nearby plant. Mr. Lattanzi said he was troubled that younger workers were being put in dangerous positions before gaining requisite experience.
“We always said we want them to go home the way they came in,” Mr. Lattanzi said in an interview. “Apparently it’s not happening right now so they’ve got to get better.”
One of the hospitalized workers who was later released was a county health department inspector, who was near the batteries that exploded. Sara Innamorato, the Allegheny County executive, expressed hope that the fatal explosion would spur the county council to approve a proposal to increase fines and fees on companies that would fund additional county health department resources.
Susan C. Beachy contributed research.
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