An explosion at the Clairton Coke Works just outside of Pittsburgh killed at least two workers and hospitalized at least ten more on August 11. One of the workers killed has been identified as Timothy Quinn, a father of three. According to Allegheny County Emergency Services, 5 of the 10 hospitalized are in “critical but stable” condition. One worker was rescued after the explosion, according to reports from monopoly media.
US Steel, the steel-making monopoly that runs the coke works, said at a press conference the same day that a single explosion occurred at two coke oven batteries. Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro said in a social media post that multiple explosions occurred. More recent reports on monopoly media state that there was one large explosion followed by multiple smaller explosions.
While the cause of the explosion has not yet been determined, Public Source, a Pittsburgh-area news site, reports that in 2018 a cascade of safety and maintenance failures at the coke works led to a fire the size of a football field which burned for two hours, destroying pollution control equipment. In February of this year, a “buildup of combustible material” in a coke oven battery at the Works led to an explosion that injured two workers, according to the Allegheny County Health Department.
Steel and iron working is the sixth most dangerous occupation in the US, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. In February of this year an explosion at a small steel mill also just outside of Pittsburgh killed one worker and injured three more.
About 1400 workers operate the Clairton Coke Works, which is the largest of such works in North America. It turns coal into coke for use in steel production, including at US Steel’s nearby flagship Edgar Thomson steel plant.
US Steel was in the crosshairs of the 2024 presidential electoral farce, with both Biden and Trump promising at the time to block the attempted sale of the steel monopoly to the Japanese steel giant Nippon Steel on the grounds of “national security” and false promises of job security for steelworkers by keeping the monopoly “American”. Trump has since gone back on his promise, and Nippon purchased US Steel in June. Under the deal, the US government, in particular the executive branch, acquired a “golden share” of the monopoly, in effect granting the executive branch overarching control of the monopoly’s decisions.
Steel and other metal industries has been in crisis for years, with mills across the country shuttering and laying off thousands of workers. Steel mills in particular have been switching from the older blast furnace production to electric-arc furnaces, which recycle scrap metal into steel, requiring fewer workers. For its part, US Steel threatened to shut down multiple mills if its sale to Nippon were blocked.
Image: Screenshot of the August 11 explosion at Clairton Coke Works from the Breathe Project’s Breathe Cam.
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