Steel Mills
Furnace Incident at AK Steel Injures Two Employees
Written by Sandy Williams
January 21, 2016
A reaction in one of the furnaces in the melt shop at AK Steel Butler led to two employees receiving non-life threatening injuries on Wednesday afternoon.
According to AK Steel spokesperson Lisa Jester, reports that the furnace exploded are exaggerated.
“To be clear, the reaction was inside the furnace and the furnace is intact–it would be inaccurate to say the furnace exploded,” wrote Jester in an email to SMU.
One employee was treated for burns at a local hospital. The other employee was treated on-site for minor injuries.
Although, not classified as an explosion by the company, media reports indicate a portion of the roof blew off from the impact that injured the two workers. The furnace reportedly involved was the 175-ton capacity electric arc furnace.
Officials are investigating the cause of the incident. AK Steel said no interruption to customer orders is expected.
Sandy Williams
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