COLUMBIANA – City fire chief Jim Douglas described Thursday night’s incident at an Esterly Drive aluminum plant as a steam flash more so than a fire and definitely not an explosion.

Douglas said that the three people injured during a early evening commercial incident at Zarbana Aluminum Extrusions 41738 Esterly Drive had been pouring molten aluminum into a container encased with a water jacket when molten metal overflowed, causing a steam flash that burned the trio.

He estimated that the molten aluminum temperature was around 800 degrees.

Zarbana offers its aluminum extrusions for windows, doors, solar technology, displays and chalkboards, to name a few uses.

Two of the injured men were transported by ambulance to St. Elizabeth’s main campus, while a third was taken via air ambulance to Pittsburgh Mercy’s burn center due to the severity of some of his burns.

Douglas had no updated information in regards to their condition.

According to news partner WKBN, the incident happened in one section of the building where four people were working. There were 15 total employees present in the building at the time.

In addition to Columbiana, Leetonia also responded to the call.

Douglas said none of the victims appeared to have life threatening injuries.

The department ultimately used 300 gallons of water to put out a small fire near the area that had ignited skids and packaging materials, he added.

Crews had all utilities shut off the building, and the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) was supposed to show up to the scene Friday.

By 1:30 a.m., firefighters had cleared the scene, Douglas concluded.