Steel Mills

Fire at Republic Steel Lorain Damages 3 Floors of EAF Building – Injures 5 Workers

December 1, 2013

A fire at Republic Steel in Lorain, Ohio injured five people and destroyed three floors within the plant before being contained on Saturday. The victims suffered smoke inhalation, first degree burns and broken bones.

The fire started just before 2:30 pm on Nov. 30 when a spark or heat ignited the oxygen supply of the electric arc furnace causing a blow torch effect, said Lorain Fire Captain Tom Baker. The system’s safety measures stopped the flames from reaching an area nearby where natural gas was stored.

The Lorain Fire Department received an emergency call at 2:20 pm reporting black smoke coming from the EAF building. “We found the new electric arc furnace building was on fire and all the mill personnel were evacuated from the area,” said Baker.

The fire destroyed all the items stored in the first floor concrete bunker as well as generator and computer systems on second and third levels. Fire Captain Baker estimated the loss to be in the millions of dollars.

The Lorain mill just commissioned its new $85 million electric arc furnace on November 26. The furnace has an expected capacity of one million tons of steel for production of bloom and billet cast semi-finished, bar and coil products.