Contributed TANKER — The tanker involved in the explosion at Langeloth Metallurgical Co.

LANGELOTH, Pa. — When there was an explosion at the plant across the street Thursday night, David Russell and his wife “thought the roof ripped off” of their home.

Multiple calls were made to 911 at about 6:15 p.m. Thursday reporting an explosion at Langeloth Metallurgical Co., a metal fabricator located at 10 Langeloth Drive in Smith Township.

“Me and the wife were sitting in the house watching TV,” Russell said. “It actually shook us in the house … I was waiting to see a hole in my house or something.”

Slovan/Smith Township Fire Department Chief Brandon Kriznik said the explosion occurred when a tanker truck carrying magnesium-chloride transferred the material into the incorrect storage tank, which contained hydrogen peroxide.

Kriznik said five people, including the truck driver, were hospitalized with minor injuries. The truck driver was transported to UPMC Presbyterian Hospital in Pittsburgh, while the others were taken to WVU Medicine-Weirton Medical Center.

Washington County Public Safety Director Gerry Coleman said the damage was contained to storage tanks and a nearby lunchroom.

“Even though it was one heck of an explosion and it did some damage to a lunchroom and some other storage tanks on site, the incident was pretty contained and under control fairly quickly,” Coleman said Friday.

According to Coleman, the frigid temperatures may have helped prevent more serious injuries.

“I think the weather actually helped us in a way, because it wasn’t like people were standing around the truck when this happened. There were workers in the area. They weren’t badly injured, which is the best-case scenario,” Coleman said.

Kriznik criticized Langeloth Metallurgical for how officials there handled the response to the explosion. According to Kriznik, emergency responders could not initially get past the security gate at the factory or determine what had actually caused the explosion.

“We could not get information from plant officials to know what was going on. It was 20 minutes before they would give us any information,” Kriznik said. “My phone is blowing up with all these concerns, and I have nothing to tell these people.”

Langeloth Metallurgical declined to provide comment. The company had no violations listed on the website for the Occupational Safety and Health Administration.

Kriznik said there was no active fire when crews arrived, and emergency officials were primarily focused on monitoring the air.

“That was our main thing, doing air monitoring. After we finally found what chemicals they were, we figured that out. I had other fire departments come up just in case we did need to do an evacuation,” Kriznik said.

According to Coleman, there was briefly a shelter in place order for residents in the area. He said it was issued “out of an abundance of caution” and was lifted after about two hours.

Kriznik and Coleman both said the state Department of Environmental Protection and the federal Environmental Protection Agency were investigating the explosion.

Also responding to the incident were fire departments from Midway, McDonald, Mount Pleasant and Jefferson Township, as well as Fort Cherry EMS.