Steel Mills
Great Lakes Blast Furnace Incident Sends Workers to Hospital
Written by Sandy Williams
August 14, 2018
An incident at the D4 blast furnace at Great Lakes Works on Friday, Aug. 10, sent 15 Songer Services contract employees to the hospital.
Spokesperson Amanda Malkowski says the incident “was not an ‘explosion,’ as many have been reporting.” The furnace was down for scheduled maintenance at the time, so there is no impact to production or customers.
U.S. Steel said in a statement:
“An incident occurred at our Great Lakes Works facility on Friday, August 10th. The issue occurred at the D4 Blast Furnace involving the dust catcher. Fifteen contracted Songer Services employees were taken to local hospitals; 12 were released, and three are receiving additional treatment. No U.S. Steel employees were injured in the incident. An investigation is ongoing at this time.”
Songer Services did not respond to inquiries for further information.
Great Lakes Works is located along the Detroit River in the communities of Ecorse and River Rouge, Mich., and includes both steelmaking and finishing facilities. Products manufactured at the plant include hot-rolled, cold-rolled and coated sheet steels that are used primarily by customers in the automotive industry. The facility has an annual raw steelmaking capability of approximately 3.8 million net tons.
Songer Services, founded in 2003, offers construction, industrial general contracting, project management, maintenance and engineering services to steel and heavy industrial manufacturers. The company operates locations in Pennsylvania, Indiana, Michigan and Ontario.
Sandy Williams
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