Steel Mills

Two Fatalities at US Steel Fairfield
Written by Sandy Williams
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.

Sandy Williams
Read more from Sandy WilliamsLatest in Steel Mills

Ternium pushes forward with growth projects despite slump in earnings and Mexican market
Ternium S.A. Fourth quarter ended Dec.31 2024 2023 Change Net sales $3,876 $4,931 -21.4% Net income (loss) $333 $554 -39.9% Per diluted share $1.43 $2.11 -32.2% Full year ended Dec.31 Net sales $17,649 $17,610 0.2% Net income (loss) $174 $986 -82.4% Per diluted share $(0.27) $3.44 -108% (in millions of dollars except per share) While […]

Kestenbaum, Ancora state their case in proxy fight for U.S. Steel
Ancora Holdings is moving forward with its proxy fight to oust U.S. Steel’s leadership and install a new board of directors and Alan Kestenbaum as CEO.
BlueScope shelves midstream facility but still upbeat on US
BlueScope Steel is pulling back on its expansion plans in the US for now but remains optimistic about the North American market.

Japanese PM cites ‘unjust political interference’ in Nippon/USS deal: Report
Japan’s Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba said on Monday that former President Joe Biden’s decision to block Nippon Steel’s buy of U.S. Steel was “unjust political interference,” according to a report in Reuters. This comes after another Reuters report on Friday saying that President Trump would not object to Nippon taking a minority stake in the […]

Trump says Nippon will ‘invest heavily’ in USS rather than buy it
Nippon Steel has agreed to “invest heavily in U.S. Steel as opposed to own it,” President Donald Trump said on Friday during a press conference with Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba. U.S. Steel is “a very important company” and was once “the greatest company in the world”. Of potential foreign ownership of the Pittsburgh-based steelmaker, Trump said, “the concept, psychologically, not good."