[chris]

A slag carrier exploded at a steel mill in the Houli district of Taichung, Taiwan, at 7:51 in the morning on April 21, 2021.

The vehicle carries a pot of molten furnace slag, in this case tapped at over 1,000 degrees Celsius. Water was left in the pot before the slag went in. When the two met the water flashed to steam and expanded roughly 1,700 times in an instant, blowing the contents out in a spray of molten slag that set fire to wooden pallets and to the trailer itself. The fire covered about 20 square meters.

Two workers who were changing shift beside the vehicle were caught in the spray and taken to hospital with burns. Reports of how badly they were hurt differed. Nobody was killed.

The city labor inspection office found the plant had not followed its own procedure, having failed to confirm the slag pot was dry before it was filled. The vehicle was ordered out of service and the company had to submit a corrective plan before slag handling resumed. The inspection director said he had never heard of a slag vehicle exploding before.