Fatal U.S. Steel Plant Explosion Raises Questions of Mill’s Safety History

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.