Essar Steel Algoma was fined $100,000 after pleading guilty in a Provincial Offences Court stemming from a 2014 industrial accident at the Sault Ste. Marie steel works where three workers were injured in a steam explosion at the No. 7 blast furnace.
During a planned maintenance shutdown at the steel mill in August 2014, one of the jobs was the relocation of cooling water piping for tuyeres (a type of nozzle used in furnaces and smelters) and coolers at the furnace.
Temporary piping was required to be installed so as to maintain the cooling systems while the new permanent piping was being put in place.
A crew of workers was installing the temporary piping on Aug. 27 when a steam explosion occurred due to a hose rupture. One worker received leg injuries; another worker received hand injuries; and a third worker received burns to the upper body.
A Ministry of Labour investigation determined that the cooling water had been turned off for a long period of time. The normal practice was to keep one cooling circuit running while the other was being switched to the temporary piping supply; keeping one circuit running would have kept the temperature of the tuyere to an appropriate level.
Essar didn’t have a written procedure in place prior to the incident identifying who had the responsibility for turning off the water supply. It was also determined that the temporary piping system was installed incorrectly, improperly configuring the system. In addition, two valves were closed to allow work on leaks in the hose. Given the improperly-configured temporary piping system, the closing of the valves effectively created a closed container with a supply of water inside. Owing to the heat which had built up from the water supply to both circuits having been turned off, the steam that was created from the trapped supply of water caused a pressure build-up which exceeded the capacity of the hose, causing its rupture and the steam explosion.
It was determined the company did not take every reasonable precaution of ensuring that water was not turned off at the main header before workers began running temporary bypass hoses.
The fine was imposed by Justice of the Peace Philip Stanghetta in Sault Ste. Marie on June 8.
