Blast Furnace Explodes at Steel Mill on Lake Michigan

An explosion Thursday at a steel mill in northwest Indiana rained down large pieces of heated refractory material from inside a blast furnace, local media report.

No injuries were reported in the explosion at the ArcelorMittal steel mill in Burns Harbor, Michigan, on Lake Michigan.

A spokesman for ArcelorMittal attributed the incident to a stove dome failure in Blast Furnace D at the mill. The stove dome houses refractory material that insulates the shell of the blast furnace from the internal temperatures of up to 2,300 degrees Fahrenheit.

The ArcelorMittal Burns Harbor in-house fire brigade was joined by firefighters from the Burns Harbor Fire and EMS and Porter Fire Department to extinguish the fire.

The cause of the explosion is under investigation.