The deadly steel plant explosion in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania on Monday shook the houses and caused cracks on walls in the nearby residential community, according to local residents who witnessed the blast.
The explosion of the U.S. Steel Clairton Coke Works plant in Clairton, about 15 miles outside of Pittsburgh, killed two steel workers and injured at least ten others, according to local police.
"At 10:45 a.m., I heard an explosion and my house shook. The whole house shook, the bed shook, and I jumped out. I thought a vehicle hit my house, ran into the house. And I got up. I looked out front, looked out back. I didn't see a car. I turned on the police scanner and a 911 call came in, saying that there's an explosion in the mill down by the ball field. So, I jumped in my car. I rode around the corner and I saw all the black smoke," said Adrian, a local resident living near the plant.
Adrian has been living in the community for more than 20 years. She said in her memory, the plant experienced production safety incidents every few months, making the people living there feel extremely unsafe.
"The industry covers a lot of incidents. I don't believe they tell us everything. I know they don't. They don't. They cover up a lot of stuff. They cover the corporation. And they tell us what we want to hear," she said.
Adrian's daughter Tracy said she wasn't surprised by Monday's explosion because it was the fourth safety incident this year as she can recall. She simply wanted answers for how to learn from the lessons and prevent such accidents from happening again.
"It's always a concern because with industry, there's always risk. When you have industry right in a community, there's a lot more at risk than just the mechanical pieces of it. You have the whole community to be concerned about. And that's a huge concern for me. How do we prevent this from happening again going forward? That's the most important part," she said.
The Clairton plant has been dogged by concerns about pollution in recent years. In 2019, the plant agreed to settle a 2017 lawsuit for 8.5 million U.S. dollars. Under the settlement, the company agreed to spend 6.5 million dollars to reduce soot emissions and noxious odors from the Clairton coke-making facility, according to media reports.
Explosion at US steel plant in Pennsylvania shakes nearby houses: witness
Explosion at US steel plant in Pennsylvania shakes nearby houses: witness
Explosion at US steel plant in Pennsylvania shakes nearby houses: witness
