Plant Explosion

Hospital: 3 critically hurt in blast at Illinos Plant

By JIM SUHR and JIM SALTER
Associated Press
   ST. LOUIS (AP) -- At least two people are hospitalized in critical condition
after an explosion at a manufacturing plant in southwestern Illinois.
   Authorities say 10 people were taken to hospitals after the explosion
Thursday at the American Steel Foundries plant in Granite City, just northeast
of St. Louis.
   Gateway Regional Medical Center spokeswoman Kate Allaria says seven
workers were treated for smoke inhalation and have been released. She says
three workers were flown to nearby Missouri hospitals.
   A spokeswoman at one of those hospitals says the two victims it received
were in critical condition. The whereabouts of the other worker wasn't
immediately clear.
   Granite City Assistant Fire Chief Jim Snelson told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch
gas somehow caught fire near a grinding machine at the plant that makes
ailcar components, causing an explosion.
   AP-WF-03-08-13 0448GMT