Explosion at EVRAZ Rocky Mountain EAF Injures seven

Local media reported that an explosion at EVRAZ Rocky Mountain steel mill in Colorado left at least seven workers with minor injuries and sent smoke and steam billowing into the air Saturday evening and a total of seven people were injured.

All of the injured parties were brought to local hospitals. Five were treated and subsequently released, two remain in intensive care units, and another was transported to a burn unit in Denver. The explosion was caused by an unexpected water discharge into the plant’s electric arc furnace, causing an increase in pressure.

Fire fighters arrived at the scene at approximately 6 PM and later discovered that a cooling system failure in a furnace led to the incident.

Pueblo Fire Department Assistant Chief Mr Keith Miller told KKTV “We found that it was a furnace that they used to melt the steel that exploded. When we first got here, they had 130 tons of steel inside that furnace at max temperature. It sounds like they had a cooling system failure, which is when water was introduced, which is potentially what caused the explosion. So we are waiting for 130 tons of steel to cool down enough to where we can go in and operate.”