EAST ALTON, Ill. (AP) - Authorities say two people are hospitalized after a reported explosion at the Olin Brass casting site in the southwestern Illinois city of East Alton.
The medical conditions of those injured during the fire about noon Tuesday were not immediately clear, and additional details about the fire were not immediately available.
Cory Douglas was a member of a subcontracting company hired to remove metal shavings from the roughly 1,000-worker plant. He tells the St. Louis Post-Dispatch that he heard a loud explosion, “like a gun going off.”
Olin spokeswoman Ann Pipkin says the cause of the blast hasn’t been determined.
East Alton is just northeast of St. Louis.
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