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5 hurt in blast at Warren Steel Holdings
By Ed Runyan
WARREN
Five workers at Warren Steel Holdings were injured, three of them seriously, from an explosion in the Warren Township plant’s electric arc furnace at 6:47 a.m. Thursday.
Warren Steel Holdings is the former Copperweld Steel and is located off Mahoning Avenue just north of Warren.
Warren Township Fire Chief Kenneth Schick said all five workers suffered burns, and the worst- injured worker was flown by helicopter to the Akron Burn Center.
Warren Township fire officials said Thursday afternoon that the company was not releasing any information about the injured workers to them, such as their names or condition.
A call to the Warren Steel Holdings offices Thursday was not returned.
Ambulance personnel from Howland, Bristol and Champion townships took four workers to ValleyCare Trumbull Memorial Hospital and St. Joseph Health Center.
Schick said it’s not clear what caused the explosion. His personnel along with several other fire departments responded to the accident.
The incident did not produce a great deal of fire, but firefighters did extinguish “hot spots,” Schick said.
Because of the potential for a significant accident at the facility, the fire departments in Bazetta Township, Champion Township, Cort- land, Howland and Warren Township all respond “automatically” when there is an emergency at the plant, Schick said.
Ohio Star Forge is the adjacent mill that is located on the Champion Township side of the entrance road to the site, Schick said. It was not involved in the incident.
Warren Steel Holdings employed about 100 salaried and hourly workers in late 2007, about six months after it began production.
It has a melt shop and casting operation producing carbon and alloy steel cast-round bars, a spokesman said.
The steel is sold to customers who turn it into seamless tubing, such as that used in the oil- and gas-drilling industry, the spokesman said.