PUEBLO — A furnace explosion at a steel mill in Colorado injured seven workers, three critically.
All seven were able to walk out and expected to survive after Saturday’s blast at the EVRAZ Pueblo steel mill, Vice President of Operations Dave Light said.
Two of the more seriously injured workers were hospitalized with respiratory injuries. A third was hospitalized with hand and face burns, KKTV reported.
Firefighters got word of the blast around 6 p.m.
“We took a look around try to find as many victims as we could, to get ambulances lined up for them, and try to triage everyone and see what we had inside the building,” Pueblo assistant fire chief Keith Miller said.
A cooling system failure at the furnace used to melt steel may have caused the blast, Miller said.
Chicago-based EVRAZ is North America’s top producer of rail and large-diameter steel pipe, according to the company’s website.