2 firefighters hurt battling blaze at Sukup Steel Structures in Ambridge
Two firefighters were injured Saturday as they battled a major blaze at a steel plant in Beaver County.
The fire at Sukup Steel Structures in Ambridge raged for roughly six hours before being brought under control around 11 a.m. by the combined efforts of 24 fire departments from Beaver and Allegheny counties.
One firefighter suffered smoke inhalation; the other had burn injuries and was taken to West Penn Hospital in Bloomfield, according to Ambridge fire Chief Robert Gottschalk.
The fire at the manufacturing facility on 14th Street was reported around 4:50 a.m., and arriving crews encountered heavy fire, making immediate entry to the building impossible, Chief Gottschalk said.
Sukup is a subsidiary of
Iowa-based Sukup Manufacturing Co.
“As a family-owned business, first and foremost we are relieved that no employees were injured in this fire,” the company said in a statement. “We will be communicating instructions directly with employees and assessing damage to the property.”
The plant is near the Ohio
River and the border between the two counties.
Sukup Steel Structures designs, engineers and manufactures steel construction buildings.
A summer day with temperatures in the 90s and the intense heat of the fire made it necessary to set up a rehab tent for firefighters and to call in multiple departments to rotate firefighters from the scene, Chief Gottschalk said. Although part of the building is a total loss, the firefighters managed to stop the spread of flames to a part of the building where chemicals and paint were stored.
Electrical work was being done in the vicinity of where the fire broke out, but the cause of the fire is under investigation and not considered suspicious, Chief Gottschalk said. Losses were still being assessed.