3 Badly Burned In Dearborn Plant Accident
A handful of steel workers were rushed to area hospitals after being burned at a Dearborn Steel Plant.
WWJ Newsradio 950 spoke with Dearborn Fire Captain Andrew Lenaghan who said, in the steel making process, the three victims suffered severe steam burns.
"It's like any other burn. There's issues with infection. There's issues with, you know, skin coming off. The patients, all three, were conscious and alert and able to talk, but they had facial burns and the one male who went downtown had burns to his lower legs, also," Lenaghan said.
Captain Lenaghan said that victim was sent to Detroit Receiving Hospital. Two others, a man and a woman, were taken to Oakwood. Another two workers were treated at the scene.
Lenaghan said they were able to get all the burn victims the help they needed in a fast, efficient manner.
"We were there pretty quickly. We have a fire station pretty much right outside their gate. We were there within a couple minutes -- probably in less than two minutes of the initial call. So, anytime you get there quickly it's going to have a positive effect on it, for sure," he said.
Severstal North America plant spokeswoman Marika Diamond said the workers suffered "non-life-threatening injuries" as a result of what the company is calling "minor reaction'' in the basic oxygen furnace area.
Diamond said the cause of the accident wasn't immediately known, and the company is investigating.
Chief Lenaghan says this isn't the first time they've responded to the Severstal Steel Plant. He says every few years they are called to on-scene accidents.
