EAST LIVERPOOL, Ohio --

An employee who was seriously burned during an East Liverpool plant fire has died.

First responders were called out to the Heritage-WTI plant on St. George Street about 1 p.m. on Saturday.

The employee, who worked as a service technician, died late Sunday at a Pittsburgh hospital, WTI officials said.  

Another employee who also was injured in the accident remains in a Pittsburgh hospital and is stable.

The company released a statement on Monday saying, "Heritage-WTI is deeply saddened to learn that one of the company’s employees passed away late last night in a hospital in Pittsburgh. …Our thoughts and prayers go out to the family and friends."

The two employees were first taken to East Liverpool City Hospital then transferred to a hospital in Pittsburgh.

WTI officials said a container of hazardous waste reacted shortly in the area of the plant where waste from a large container is split into several smaller ones. The reaction caused a fire that engaged several other containers nearby.
 
The plant’s on-site emergency response team and automated fire-suppression system engaged to extinguish the containers, and the East Liverpool Fire Department also responded.

The cause of the fire is being investigated. According to the release, WTI has notified the U.S. Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) and is cooperating fully with the agency’s investigators.

“We dispatched an investigator immediately this morning, and we are on site conducting an investigation," said Aaron Priddy, the assistant area director for the OSHA Cleveland regional office. “At this particular point, it's really going to just be trying to determine exactly what the process was, what was involved, who was involved, what was the particular components, and materials that the employees may have been working with.”

 
The incident led to temporary suspension of processing solid wastes.  Liquid-waste operations were not suspended and processing operations are continuing on a limited basis.

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