Five hospitalized after explosion at Smith Township plant
When there was an explosion at the plant across the street Thursday night, David Russell and his wife 无毛视频渢hought the roof ripped off无毛视频� of their home.
Multiple calls were made to 911 at about 6:15 p.m. Thursday reporting an explosion at Langeloth Metallurgical Co., a metal fabricator located at 10 Langeloth Drive in Smith Township.
无毛视频淢e and the wife were sitting in the house watching TV,无毛视频� Russell said. 无毛视频淚t actually shook us in the house 无毛视频� I was waiting to see a hole in my house or something.无毛视频�
Slovan/Smith Township Fire Department Chief Brandon Kriznik said the explosion occurred when a tanker truck carrying magnesium-chloride transferred the material into the incorrect storage tank, which contained hydrogen peroxide.
Kriznik said five people, including the truck driver, were hospitalized with minor injuries. The truck driver was transported to UPMC Presbyterian Hospital in Pittsburgh, while the others were taken to Weirton (W.Va.) Medical Center.
Washington County Public Safety Director Gerry Coleman said the damage was contained to storage tanks and a nearby lunch room.
无毛视频淓ven though it was one heck of an explosion and it did some damage to a lunch room and some other storage tanks on site, the incident was pretty contained and under control fairly quickly,无毛视频� Coleman said Friday.
According to Coleman, the frigid temperatures may have helped prevent more serious injuries.
无毛视频淚 think the weather actually helped us in a way, because it wasn无毛视频檛 like people were standing around the truck when this happened. There were workers in the area. They weren无毛视频檛 badly injured, which is the best-case scenario,无毛视频� Coleman said.
Kriznik criticized Langeloth Metallurgical for how officials there handled the response to the explosion. According to Kriznik, emergency responders could not initially get past the security gate at the factory or determine what had actually caused the explosion.
无毛视频淲e could not get information from plant officials to know what was going on. It was 20 minutes before they would give us any information,无毛视频� Kriznik said. 无毛视频淢y phone is blowing up with all these concerns, and I have nothing to tell these people.无毛视频�
Langeloth Metallurgical declined to provide comment. The company had no violations listed on the website for the Occupational Safety and Health Administration.
Kriznik said there was no active fire when crews arrived, and emergency officials were primarily focused on monitoring the air.
无毛视频淭hat was our main thing, doing air monitoring. After we finally found what chemicals it was, we figured that out. I had other fire departments come up just in case we did need to do an evacuation,无毛视频� Kriznik said.
According to Coleman, there was briefly a shelter in place order for residents in the area. He said it was issued 无毛视频渙ut of an abundance of caution无毛视频� and was lifted after about two hours.
Kriznik and Coleman both said the state Department of Environmental Protection and the federal Environmental Protection Agency were investigating the explosion.
Also responding to the incident were fire departments from Midway, McDonald, Mt. Pleasant, Jefferson Township, as well as Fort Cherry EMS.