Molten steel is poured into a suspended ladle. (ROBERT GAUTHIER / LAT)
Foreman Dave “Killer” Kiel watches the flow. (ROBERT GAUTHIER / LAT)
Amid flying skeeters, casters work feverishly to clear the way for molten steel to be poured into molds. (ROBERT GAUTHIER / LAT)
Workers watch the progress of the latest melt. (ROBERT GAUTHIER / LAT)
Scrap metal being lowered into a melting pot sends out an intense blast. (ROBERT GAUTHIER / LAT)
Melters wear sunglasses to shield their eyes from the glow of melting steel while they man computers controlling the operation. (ROBERT GAUTHIER / LAT)
Joe Bestpitch pauses in the furnace room. (ROBERT GAUTHIER / LAT)
Workers monitor the melting process. (ROBERT GAUTHIER / LAT)
Newly pressed rebar cools as it rolls off the mill. (ROBERT GAUTHIER / LAT)
The ladle, still hot and glowing from the latest melt, rests on its side. (ROBERT GAUTHIER / LAT)
Relief foreman Richard Cooper takes a breather. (ROBERT GAUTHIER / LAT)
Heat radiates from steel beams being cooled. (ROBERT GAUTHIER / LAT)
Kiel watches over other casters as they monitor the steelmaking process via computer. (ROBERT GAUTHIER / LAT)
Working with hot steel is hazardous, as evidenced by the burned arm of Kiel. (ROBERT GAUTHIER / LAT)
