CARLSTADT, N.J. (AP) — An explosion at a metal casting plant killed one and injured nine others Tuesday morning, authorities said.
The accident occurred at Tec-Cast, an aluminum castings company, while workers were performing maintenance on an air pressure vat used to pour molten metals into cast machine parts, police said.
Workers were fixing a door on the approximately 4-foot wide vat shortly after 8 a.m. when it exploded because of air pressure that had built up in the back, said Capt. Franklin Smith of the Carlstadt Police Department.
A 61-year-old maintenance supervisor was killed when the door blew off the vat and struck him and the other workers, police said. The man was pronounced dead at the scene; the others were taken to area hospitals.
Three of the injuries were critical.
Efforts to reach Tec-Cast officials were not immediately successful. A woman who answered the phone said she was in another building and did not know what was happening.
