Steel Mills
Fire at Republic Steel Lorain Damages 3 Floors of EAF Building – Injures 5 Workers
Written by Sandy Williams
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.
Sandy Williams
Read more from Sandy WilliamsLatest in Steel Mills
USW seeks clarity on USS plans for Granite City Works
The United Steelworkers union has asked U.S. Steel to elaborate on its Granite City Works plans following reports that the steelmaker is ending processing at the facility.
Nucor maintains plate prices, opens October order book
Nucor aims to keep plate prices flat for a seventh straight month with the opening of its October order book.
ArcelorMittal Mexico to import from sister mills as it works to resume DRI production
ArcelorMittal has partially restarted operations at its direct reduction plant in Lazaro Cardenas, Michoacan. An explosion on Aug. 18 rocked the massive steelworks on Mexico’s Pacific coast, impacting production of direct-reduced iron (DRI).
Fall maintenance outages are coming in hot
Labor Day has passed, the sun is starting to set a little earlier each day, and cooler weather has begun to find its way down to many of us across North America. And you know what that means for the steel industry… Fall maintenance outages!
AISI: Domestic steel production ticks up
US raw steel production ticked up in the week ending on Sept. 6 after a decrease the week before, according to the most recent data from the American Iron and Steel Institute (AISI).