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QUOTE
No fines in bustle pipe rupture
MITTAL EXPLOSION: Injured workers not surprised by decision
From Monday, February 5, 2007 12:00 AM CST Email this story Print this story
BY ANDREA HOLECEK
holecek@nwitimes.com
219.933.3316

IOSHA found no violations of its safety regulations in its investigation of the blast furnace bustle pipe that ruptured in October at Mittal Steel Burns Harbor, despite the pipe's history of cracks and breaks.

The three workers who were injured in the explosion aren't surprised by the Indiana Occupational Safety and Health Administration's decision.

Mittal Steel refused to comment on the matter.

"We don't feel a need to say anything on it," spokesman David Allen said Friday, responding to requests made earlier in the week.

On Oct. 24, a large section of the steel-hulled, brick-lined bustle pipe on the mill's blast furnace D ruptured, creating a 6-by-9-foot hole in its shell and spewing pressurized 2,000-degree air, graphite, steel and other debris into the surrounding area.

The explosion, which occurred on the top half of the pipe facing the furnace, seriously injured and burned three employees. Steelworker David "Harry" Lowe was in the burn unit of the University of Chicago Medical Center for more than two weeks. The other men, Otto Barrios and Richard "David" Oberle, were hospitalized in the burn unit at Loyola University Hospital. Only Barrios is back on the job.

If the pipe had ruptured next to the three steelworkers, they probably would have been incinerated, the men and their fellow workers said. An examination of the furnace's computerized records show there were a dozen similar but less serious breaks in the huge bustle pipe in the nine months prior to the Oct. 24 rupture.

Both IOSHA and a joint company and the United Steelworkers safety team have investigated the incident. And Mittal Steel USA has taken several precautions to prevent a recurrence.

Oberle, 61, of Michigan City, is a shift coordinator and a 34-year employee of the steel plant. He hasn't returned to work and remains under doctor's care, he said Wednesday.

"I believe they (IOSHA) made the correct decision," said Oberle, a salaried worker who was in charge of the furnace when the pipe ruptured. "We've been dealing with little cracks for years. Furnaces expand and contract with heat ups and downs, and that creates some of that. The bustle pipe that broke has been in existence since the furnaces were built. ... It was a freak thing."

Since the accident, the company has installed thermal couplings that take heat readings on 28 places along the circumference of the approximately 40-year-old bustle pipe. When a coupling indicates a temperature that's higher than normal, the spot is checked, Oberle said.

The D furnace is scheduled to be relined in 2008. The plant's C furnace, which also has had repeated cracks in the pipe on its shell, will be taken down at the end of March to repair the area above its bustle pipe, Oberle said, adding thermal couplings may be installed on the pipe.

"If we had known there was a problem, we would have dealt with it," he said Wednesday. "You don't know what will happen until it happens. Then you write procedures to avoid it."

Barrios, who also is a salaried employee, said Wednesday that IOSHA's decision doesn't "really surprise" him.

"I really do not know what really happened, and no one does," he said. "I wish I knew why it happened, but no one knows, and they're more experienced than I am."

Barrios said he was never interviewed by IOSHA officials.

"I was interviewed by the safety team," he said. "They're trying to piece together what happened."

Lowe, who is a member of United Steelworkers Local 6787, said Thursday that he was interviewed by IOSHA officials.

"They said there was no fault," he said. "They said they couldn't find any violations. No one ever experienced a bustle pipe blowing up like that in the history of steelmaking."

But Lowe said he doesn't completely understand why the agency has fined other corporations for using old pipe, but didn't fine Mittal.

"This bustle pipe is from 1969, 1970," he said. "I have to say, no, the company didn't know it was going to happen, but it's an old bustle pipe. To me, it's simple. It's an old furnace that's been due for a reline for a couple of years, and they didn't do it."