Steel Mills

Two Fatalities at US Steel Fairfield

September 23, 2014

An explosion at US Steel Fairfield on Sunday evening resulted in the death of two worker and the severe injury of another. US Steel security and paramedics responded to the incident. Edward Lamar Bryant, 53, was pronounced dead on Sunday at UAB Hospital emergency room in Birmingham, Al. Leo Bridges and Mac Bedwell were transported to the Trauma and Burn Intensive Care Unit at UAB Hospital. Bridges died this morning after he was removed from life support. Bedwell remains in critical condition.

According to a statement below by U.S. Steel media spokesperson, Courtney Boone, the blast furnace continues to operate at the Fairfield Works facility in Birmingham, Alabama. The accident occurred on Sunday sometime before 5:00 p.m. at the Q-BOP, the vessel used to take the pig iron from the blast furnace and combine it with scrap in order to make molten steel. US Steel Fairfield has one BOP (or basic oxygen process or furnace) at the Fairfield mill and it is not totally understood what damages the mill suffered in the accident that claimed two lives and critically injured a third.

US Steel – UPDATED 9/22/14 4:30 pm EDT : “In the evening of Sunday, Sept. 21, there was an incident at U. S. Steel’s Fairfield Works’ Q-BOP in Birmingham which resulted in the injury of three employees. Following the incident the employees were transported to an area hospital where one employee has unfortunately died as the result of his injuries. An investigation into the incident is underway. The blast furnace operations continue. No further details are available at this time.”

US Steel Great Lakes Works suffered a fatality earlier this year when a crane being operated by a sub-contractor toppled during the repair of another BOP which had suffered an incident when a pipe fell through the roof. At that time, the BOP facility was down for a number of days pending an investigation and repairs to the roof.