2 killed in explosion at US Steel plant in Pennsylvania

An explosion at a US Steel plant in Clairton, Pennsylvaniaa, killed two people and injured at least 10 more Monday, authorities said after rescuers spent hours sifting through the plant’s rubble.

Witnesses described feeling a shock wave and then seeing black smoke spew into the sky shortly before 11 am. Part of a building appeared to have been sheared off, and debris littered the area.

Both of the people who died were workers at the plant.

Rescuers found one survivor hours after the explosion, Monday afternoon, and were able to take that person to a hospital as the search continued for one other missing person. That effort ended late Monday with the discovery of the second body.

Joshua Pershing, a fourth-generation steelworker who works at the plant, said he had been in another building at the plant and had felt it shake from the blast.

“Next thing I knew, guys were running in, saying something just blew up,” said Pershing, 31.

“We don’t know who’s alive and who’s gone,” he said, choking up. “But pray for their families.”

Few details were available on the extent of injuries or what caused the explosion near the northern end of the Clairton plant, a sprawling facility covering hundreds of acres along a mile-long bend of the Monongahela River, about 15 miles southeast of downtown Pittsburgh.

Neither victim was identified by authorities Monday, though US Steel said that both of the fatalities worked there.

Scott Buckiso, an executive vice president and chief manufacturing officer at the company, said the explosion happened at two coke oven batteries that had appeared to be in good condition before the blast.

“Safety is our No. 1 priority every day, every shift, 365,” Buckiso said. “So, obviously, this is a tragedy that we want to understand.”

Earlier in the day, officials had estimated that dozens of people had been hurt. Abigail Gardner, a spokesperson for Allegheny County, said some people at the plant had been critically injured while others had minor wounds.

The county health department for several hours urged people within 1 mile of the explosion to remain indoors but later lifted the order, saying air quality monitors showed the air remained safe.

Ronnie Fordyce, who works at the plant, said he and others were on their lunch break, far away from where the explosion occurred, when they felt the blast.

“Then we went outside and saw the smoke,” he said.

Zachary Buday, a construction worker at a job site less than half a mile away from the plant, said the explosion “took the air out of your chest,” even at a distance.

A spokesperson for the Allegheny Health Network said that two of its trauma center hospitals had received one patient each. Five more patients were taken to the network’s hospital that is closest to the scene, and all were released within a few hours. Three additional patients were taken to the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center.

Butch Michaels, who works at Hometown Burgers and Deli next to the plant, said he felt the building shake and thought at first that it was from a construction site next to the deli. But his manager told him the blast was too strong for that. “It blew our front door open,” Michaels said.

Bernie Hall, who leads the United Steelworkers union in Pennsylvania, said in a statement that the union would seek a “thorough investigation” and provide its members with support.

The Allegheny County Police Department said its homicide unit would be leading the investigation with help from the county fire marshal and federal authorities.

The plant, which has been in operation for more than a century, is a remnant of the industrial concentration that built Pittsburgh into the Steel City and helped power the Industrial Revolution. Coal arrives at the plant by train and barge, and is converted into coke to fuel the blast furnaces that manufacture steel.

US Steel said in a statement that the company was working with authorities to determine what had caused the disaster.

“Nearly 1,300 dedicated men and women work at the Clairton Plant each day, performing their jobs with the utmost safety,” David B. Burritt, the company’s president, said in the statement. “During times like this, US Steel employees come together to extend their love, prayers and support to everyone affected.”

The company’s website says that the plant is the largest coke manufacturing facility in the United States, with 10 operating batteries of coke ovens that produce a total of approximately 4.3 million tons of coke annually, according to US Steel.

In recent years, the Clairton plant has drawn criticism from environmental groups and nearby residents over pollution and over what critics said was deficient maintenance. A sprinkler pipe failure in 2018 led to a fire at the plant on Christmas Eve, and there were power outages at the plant in 2019 and 2022.

US Steel reached a settlement with Allegheny County and two environmental groups in 2024 in which the company agreed to pay $4.5 million toward environmental projects as a result of those incidents. The company also promised to invest roughly $19.5 million to upgrade its coke oven gas cleaning facilities.

“The work we do is important and often challenging,” Burritt said, “but it should never, under any circumstances, come at the expense of safety.”

Richard Lattanzi, the mayor of Clairton, worked at US Steel for 30 years, including eight as a safety inspector, and said he knew it was a dangerous place to work.

But, he added, “nobody should die at work.” He said he had met with workers at the plant. “I shook all their hands,” he said. “They’re going to take it home with them.”

Sen. John Fetterman, D-Pa., told reporters Monday that the disaster “reminds everybody how dangerous of a job it is to make steel here.”

“It’s just absolutely tragic,” he said.