They have a coke oven and a blast furnace at Stelco in Hamilton.
Blast means just that.
Very difficult to tell if it is an explosion, or just the blast furnace. You get a major cloud either way.
Thing is, they would usually be quiet on Christmas day - which kind of supports the idea of an accident.
You have to pay double time and a half on Christmas, on union rates.
Still, I heard no mention of it 20 minutes ago from a guy who should know almost immediately if anything was wrong.
I'll ask him when he calls back later today.
Orange is the usual cloud color coming from Stelco.
A sustained roar is the usual noise - not a couple of bangs.
Somebody might have fucked up.
EDIT: CP24 local news reports a large fire with no injuries: "a slag pit eruption in the number 4 blast furnace."
Probably everyone was at home, and someone forgot to turn something off on the way out yesterday.
It's more expensive to turn these off and turn them back on again, then to just simply let them run. The color of the smoke is the color of iron oxide, or rust. Being that Canada is a first world country, this system would have been near fully automated. So accident or terrorist attack?
That's right - it's nearly fully automated - 600 steel workers. There used to be 80,000 at the same plant 100 years ago.
Wow. Glad to see you made it, goat. I hope you had a Merry Christmas.
Niggers don't turn shit off
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