Explosions at U.S. Steel plant in Pennsylvania leave 1 dead, 10 hurt

Explosions at a U.S. Steel plant that shook the ground near Pittsburgh left one dead and sent at least 10 to hospitals Monday, with emergency workers still searching the badly charred rubble hours later for a missing worker, officials said.

- BY MARC LEVY, GENE PUSKAR, MICHAEL CASEY AND PATRICK WHITTLE

CLAIRTON Coke Works near Pittsburgh is one of four major U.S. Steel plants in Pennsylvania.

One worker was pulled from the wreckage hours after the explosions sent black smoke spiraling into the midday sky in the Mon Valley, a region of the state synonymous with steel for more than a century.

Allegheny County Emergency Services said a fire at the plant started around 10:51 a.m. A search and rescue effort was still active on Monday afternoon and officials said they had not isolated the cause of the blasts.

The explosions sent a shock through the community and led to officials asking residents to stay away from the scene so emergency workers could respond.

"It felt like thunder," Zachary Buday, a construction worker near the scene, told WTAE-TV. "Shook the scaffold, shook my chest, and shook the building."

At a news conference, Scott Buckiso, U.S. Steel’s chief manufacturing officer, did not give details about the damage or casualties, and said they were still trying to determine what happened. U.S. Steel employees “did a great job” of going in and rescuing workers, shutting down gases and making sure the site was stable.