Clairton Coke Works Explosion
Understanding the fatal incident on August 11, 2025 and its aftermath
When something like the deadly explosion at U.S. Steel’s Clairton Coke Works facility occurs, it rocks an entire community. Afterward, there are so many unanswered questions: What caused the explosion? Who is investigating? What is being done to ensure an incident like this one doesn’t happen again? What were - and are - the air quality ramifications?
Unfortunately, the answer to so many of those questions will take months to answer. Agencies like the Chemical Safety Board and the U.S. Occupational Health and Safety Administration (OSHA), among others, are investigating the incident, and those reports will be made public once they are complete.
As part of our watchdog work, the Group Against Smog and Pollution (GASP) staff pored over documents obtained through a public records request to the Allegheny County Health Department, scoured available draft reports, and compiled statements from stakeholders to create this resource page.
Why? Because we believe an educated citizenry is paramount to progress. And frankly, we believe that when high-profile incidents like the Clairton explosion happen, the need for a centralized source of historical and current information is the easiest way to ensure folks have access to all that data.
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Stay tuned - this page will be updated as more news stories, documents, and reports become available.
Questions? Concerns? Hit up our communications manager Amanda Gillooly at amanda@gasp-pgh.org.
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GASP wants to extend a HUGE thank you to our friends at the Environmental Integrity Project. The folks at EIP shared a veritable cornucopia of documents it received through a Right to Know request, which greatly helped round out our research. Thanks, EIP!
Documents & Media Coverage:
Reports & Documents:
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9/29/25: CSB update into the agency's investigation of the incident
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Media Highlights
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10/6/25: Fatal Clairton explosion happened during valve maintenance - The Allegheny Front
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9/19/25: Health Department, CMU experts release findings of air report after deadly explosion at U.S. Steel's Clairton Coke Works - TribLIVE.com
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8/18/25: Fatal explosion at U.S. Steel’s Clairton plant raises questions about its future, despite heavy investment - Public Source
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8/13/25: A worker’s story of the deadly explosion at the Clairton coke plant - The Allegheny Front
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8/12/25: U.S. Steel: Clairton workers prepped maintenance job before explosion - WESA
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8/12/25: What we know about Pennsylvania U.S. Steel plant after explosion - The Washington Post
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8/11/25: 2 Killed in Explosion at U.S. Steel Plant in Pennsylvania - The New York Times
On September 29, 2025 the U.S. Chemical Safety and Hazard Investigation Board (CSB) released an update on their investigation.