Fatal Explosion Rocks US Steel Plant Near Pittsburgh

Explosions at a US Steel plant near Pittsburgh left two dead and at least 10 hospitalized Monday, heavily damaging the sprawling facility, the AP reports. The initial explosion, followed by smaller blasts, sent black smoke spiraling into the midday sky in the Monongahela Valley, a region of the state synonymous with steel for more than a century.

• Allegheny County officials said two people died. Others were treated for injuries, many of them transported by ambulance to hospitals. One worker was pulled from the wreckage hours after the blast.
• The plant, a massive industrial facility along the Monongahela River south of Pittsburgh, is considered the largest coking operation in North America and is one of four major US Steel plants in Pennsylvania that employ several thousand workers.

• Allegheny County Emergency Services said a fire at the plant started around 10:50am. The ensuing explosions sent a shock through the community and led to officials asking residents to stay away from the scene so emergency workers could respond. The cause of the blasts has not been determined.
• "It felt like thunder," Zachary Buday, a construction worker near the scene, told WTAE-TV. "Shook the scaffold, shook my chest, and shook the building, and then when we saw the dark smoke coming up from the steel mill and put two and two together, and it's like something bad happened."

• In June, US Steel and Nippon Steel announced they had finalized a "historic partnership," a deal that gives the US government a say in some matters and comes a year and a half after the Japanese company first proposed its nearly $15 billion buyout of the iconic American steelmaker. The pursuit by Nippon Steel for the Pittsburgh-based company was buffeted by national security concerns and presidential politics in a premier battleground state, dragging out the transaction for more than a year after US Steel shareholders approved it.

This story has been updated throughout with new details.