2 dead, including Westmoreland County man, in explosion at Clairton Coke Works

Two workers were killed Monday and 10 others were taken to area hospitals after a trio of explosions damaged U.S. Steel’s Clairton Coke Works, the nation’s largest coke manufacturing facility.

A Westmoreland County man, Timothy Quinn, 39, was one of the workers who died. A second man, not identified, was pulled from the rubble Monday evening after authorities had spent hours combing the blast site for signs of life.

“That worker has been extricated and is now in the hands of the medical examiner’s office,” said Matt Brown, Allegheny County’s chief of emergency services, at an evening news conference.

The first explosion occurred about 10:47 a.m., according to video recorded by the Breathe Project, a clean-air group whose cameras in Clairton captured an enormous plume of black smoke billowing skyward.

That was followed by two secondary explosions, according to Allegheny County officials.

Quinn of South Huntingdon started work at 5:30 a.m. Monday, his usual shift, said his sister Trisha Quinn of Madison.

Representatives from U.S. Steel visited with the family for about 15 minutes and provided information about death benefits, she said. They had not publicly confirmed Quinn’s death during the day. Late Monday night, the Allegheny County Medical Examiner’s Office said that Quinn died just before 11:30 a.m.

Courtesy of family of Timothy Quinn

Timothy Quinn

She said her brother loved the job, following in the footsteps of their father, who worked there for 42 years.

“Tim was a blue-collar guy,” she said.

A single father of three, Quinn hoped his 17-year-old son would continue the family tradition, Trisha Quinn said.

Brown, the county official, said Monday evening that five of the injured remained in critical but stable condition at hospitals. Five others had been treated and released.

Mariah Carpenter, 19, of Clairton said she lives near the plant and felt the blast.

“All I heard was ‘ka-boom!’ and our house was shaking, shaking like it was an earthquake,” Carpenter told TribLive.

U.S. Steel said the initial explosion occurred at coke oven batteries 13 and 14, triggering an immediate response from emergency teams.

First responders from two counties, 14 fire departments and 20 EMS companies rushed to the scene.

Coke batteries are groups of connecting ovens that convert coal to coke, which is used in the steelmaking process.

Related:

• Editorial: Clairton Coke Works explosion is moment of calm in partisan storm
• What they're saying about explosion at U.S. Steel's Clairton Coke Works
• Other recent accidents at Clairton, where coke is made at near 2,000 degrees

The blast spurred an initial call to 911 at 10:51 a.m., said Abigail Gardner, a spokesperson for Allegheny County.

She said there were two smaller explosions around noon.

A tightly controlled news conference Monday afternoon just inside the plant’s main gate shed little light on the nature or cause of the explosion even though it drew the state’s lieutenant governor, the county executive and a U.S. Steel executive.

Questions from the media about the possible cause or origin of the blasts went unanswered, as did requests for information about the dead and injured.

A U.S. Steel official said at the evening press conference initial steps of the investigation will include interviews with workers and help from experts inside of the company and out.

The investigation into the explosion will involve the Allegheny County Police Department, county fire marshal, the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives and other agencies.

Vic Joseph, a county police assistant superintendent, said the probe will be “time-consuming and technical.”

In a statement, U.S. Steel President and CEO David Burritt addressed the casualties and called on his employees to support one another.

More on U.S. Steel's Clairton Coke Works:

• Feb. 4, 2024: ‘This is what money smells like’: Clairton’s air pollution history
• June 15, 2019: How residents grapple with life in the shadows of U.S. Steel's Clairton Plant

“We are heartbroken to share that a U.S. Steel colleague lost their life today. And we have other employees who are injured and one we’re still searching for,” Burritt said. “I know that here in Clairton, and across our U.S. Steel family, people are hurting. Let’s continue to do what we do best — stand together and support one another through these hard times.”

U.S. Sen. John Fetterman, D-Pa., who lives in Braddock across the street from U.S. Steel’s Edgar Thomson Works, arrived at the Clairton facility around 12:40 p.m.

“Without a doubt this is tragic what happened, and I don’t know what kind of damage occurred to the facility,” he said.

Clairton Mayor Rich Lattanzi told TribLive he was on the site and talking with steel workers.

“I’m shaking their hands as they’re walking by,” he said.

Lattanzi said workers were reporting to other portions of the facility, but the area damaged in the blast was not operational.

“This is going to take a long time for the investigation to come out,” the mayor said. “This investigation’s ongoing.”

Bill Farrier, president of the United Steelworker local in Clairton, said he wasn’t ready to give interviews on Monday afteroon.

“We had an explosion. We’re just worried about our people,” Farrier said.

‘Black smoke everywhere’

Deanna Forkey was working inside the pizza and burger shop she manages near the coke works when the explosion went off.

“I heard the bang — it popped our door open,” said Forkey, 32, of Clairton. “When I looked up, all I saw was black smoke everywhere.”

Forkey has seen black smoke rise at the coke works in the two years she’s managed Hometown Burgers & Deli, which sits on Maple Avenue near an entrance to the plant.

This time was different, she said.

“The amount of black smoke? I could tell it was not normal,” she said. “It was definitely (an incident) where you go, ‘There’s something wrong.’ ”

Randy McCain was working inside a Clairton Coke Works control room at the time of the explosion.

He said the blast was loud but people remained calm in his area.

“There’s just a lot of emergency vehicles, a lot of emergency personnel,” said McCain, 48, of Uniontown.

McCain finished a double shift — 16 hours of work — at 1 p.m. Monday. He was set to return to work for his next shift around 8 p.m.

John LaBarbara called his father, a maintenance worker and 30-year veteran of the coke works, as soon as he heard about the explosion.

“My dad’s in there. He was supposed to be in (batteries) 13/14 today, where it exploded,” LaBarbara, 19, of Elizabeth Township told TribLive.

He said his father was safe.

First responders from multiple counties responded to the first blast.

Seven of the injured were taken to Allegheny Health Network facilities while two went to UPMC Mercy in Pittsburgh.

Gov. Josh Shapiro posted on X shortly before noon that his administration was in touch with local officials in Clairton “as they respond to an explosion” at the coke works. He asked for prayers for the community.

Allegheny Health Network said five patients were being treated at Jefferson Hospital in Jefferson Hills, one was at Forbes Hospital in Monroeville and one at Allegheny General Hospital on Pittsburgh’s North Side.

Jefferson Hospital said all its patients were discharged by late afternoon.

UPMC confirmed it was treating three patients at UPMC Mercy in Pittsburgh’s Bluff section.

It is the region’s only level-one trauma and burn center.

Emergency crews were called to the facility, on the 400 block of State Street in Clairton, shortly after 11 a.m.

A Westmoreland County 911 supervisor said Allegheny County officials requested additional medic trucks to respond to the incident.

People on scene reported seeing two helicopters departing from the site.

No smoke or fire was visible on site around noon.

The United Steelworkers union sent a team to the plant.

“The USW has occupational health and safety experts and other representatives on the ground at the Clairton Works assessing the situation and aiding our members,” according to a statement from the union’s USW District 10 Director Bernie Hall.

“While we are still determining the scope of the tragedy, we are aware that multiple workers are receiving medical treatment for their injuries. In the coming days, we will work with the appropriate authorities to ensure a thorough investigation and to see that our members get the support they need.”

Monitoring air quality

Officials from the county health department monitored air quality during the day and recommended “out of an abundance of caution” that those living within a mile of the plant remain inside, close their windows and doors, set their HVAC system to recirculate and refrain from drawing in outside air, such as by using exhaust fans.

The health department lifted the advisory at 6:30 p.m. and said air monitors had not detected emissions of certain compounds above federal standards.

A representative for the U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration, which monitors workplace safety, confirmed it was aware of the incident and is “looking further” into it.

At the scene, at least a dozen marked emergency vehicles were near the State Street plant around 12:30 p.m.

First responders in yellow vests clustered around a gate leading to the 392-acre property along the Monongahela River.

A group of women gathered at a Speedway gas station at the corner of State Street and Maple Avenue around noon. They said they quickly called those they knew inside the plant after the explosion.

Dave Evans, a Monessen volunteer firefighter, arrived at the coke works Monday afternoon with pallets of water and Gatorade — 2,500 bottles of water alone.

“There’s a lot of guys back there,” said Evans, 53, of Monessen. “This is for the first responders, for anybody.”

The Clairton plant is part of U.S. Steel’s Mon Valley Works, an integrated steelmaking operation that includes the Edgar Thomson Plant in Braddock and the Irvin Plant in West Mifflin. A fourth plant, Fairless, is located near Philadelphia serves as a finishing facility.

The Clairton plant is situated on the west bank of the Monongahela River about 20 miles from Pittsburgh. As the largest coke manufacturing facility in the nation, it has 10 coke oven batteries and produces about 4.3 million tons of coke each year.

It is the only remaining U.S. Steel coke-producing plant in the country. As of 2023, the Clairton facility employed about 1,400 people, according to a U.S. Steel report.

St. Clair Steel Company built the facility in 1901. U.S. Steel purchased it in 1904.

Staff writers Renatta Signorini and Joe Napsha contributed.

Justin Vellucci and Julia Burdelski are TribLive staff writers (jvellucci@triblive.com, jburdelski@triblive.com).