SAFETY HEADLINESSafety
OAO Severstal Resumes Blast Furnace Operations at Cherepovets
Feb. 5, 2008 OAO Severstal has resumed operation of Blast Furnace No. 5 at its Cherepovets steel plant, and the company said production volumes have now returned to normal.
Restart of the suspended blast furnace follows a fire on January 31 that resulted in the death of one Severstal employee and injury of two others.
The restarted blast furnace was to resume operations using three Cowper stoves while the company continued to make repairs to the failed stove. Meanwhile, possible causes of the incident are under investigation by a Commission set up by the company.
A possibility initially under investigation was that the fire might have been the result of ignition of the furnace’s roofing material caused by the opening of the third Cowper stove in the upper part of the furnace.
The Commission was also considering the possibility of a partial failure of refractories, which could have led to local overheating of the air conduit’s armor and a subsequent rupture. An additional consideration under investigation was the possible failure of a weld on the Cowper stove.
Severstal extended condolences and support to the family of the deceased employee, 61-year-old Shift Supervisor Leonid Glagolev. At latest report, one of the injured workers still remained in the hospital in stable condition, but the other had been discharged.