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Explosion at Pittsburgh-area steel plant injures 15

Aerial television video showed smoke rising from the sprawling plant and the area swarming with emergency responders

By Jennifer C. Yates
The Associated Press

CLAIRTON, Pa. — Authorities say that an explosion at a U.S. Steel plant near Pittsburgh has injured 15 people and that a fire is still burning.

Allegheny County spokesman Kevin Evanto says there was an explosion in one of the coke ovens at United States Steel Corp.'s Clairton Coke Works around 9:30 a.m. Wednesday.

He says that 14 workers suffered burns and another suffered chest pains, but that none of the injuries is believed to be life-threatening.

Aerial television video showed smoke rising from the sprawling plant about 20 miles south of Pittsburgh. A maintenance worker died in an explosion there in September 2009.

Coke is a form of processed coal used in the steelmaking process.