One person is dead and more than a dozen others are injured following an explosion at a metal alloy plant in Ohio on Monday afternoon, authorities said.
Thirteen people were immediately taken to a hospital, one in critical condition, after sustaining injuries from a fire inside the I. Schumann & Co. plant in Bedford, southeast of Cleveland, Oakwood Village Fire Capt. Brian DiRocco told reporters at the scene.
“It was a large explosion,” he said. “We have several area departments helping and several area chiefs assisting and helping us run this incident.”
Four patients were received at MetroHealth Medical Center in Cleveland. Two of them remained in critical condition as of Tuesday, a hospital spokesperson told HuffPost.
The blast appeared to blow out an entire wall of the building, crushing cars parked outside with bricks and other flying debris, photos taken at the scene show. No one was injured from this debris outside, said DiRocco.
The one fatality was identified as Steven Mullins, 46, by the Cuyahoga County Medical Examiner’s Office.
Mullins had worked with I. Schumann & Co. for nearly three decades in its maintenance group. He was “one of our valued colleagues and good friend to all,” the company said in a statement Tuesday afternoon.
The cause of the explosion, which is being investigated by the state fire marshal, remained unknown as of Tuesday afternoon, DiRocco said at a press conference.
DiRocco had said Monday that he personally checked the building as a fire inspector over the years. He called it a “relatively safe plant.”
“It’s a very safe place except for the fact that it’s a foundry, so you’re dealing with molten hot metal, so there’s always an inherent danger,” he said.
At Tuesday’s press conference, he said he was relieved and surprised that there weren’t more casualties.
“The scope of the blast, the fire, the smoke, I’m glad that it wasn’t worse than it was,” DiRocco said.