Wickwire Spencer Steel
You may be entitled to receive compensation. Mesothelioma and lung cancer victims & their families have been awarded over $1 million+ from easy access to funds. Call us today to apply.
Over the past 20 years, we've helped 1,000s of families claim the compensation they deserve with no upfront costs to them.
Wickwire Spencer Steel’s steel plant opened as Wickwire Steel Company in 1901. The plant was located on River Road in Tonawanda, New York. The steel plant was one million-square feet and had buildings that were home to blast furnaces, blooming mills, billet mills, rod mills, and hearth furnaces. Wickwire Steel Company merged with Spencer Steel in 1920. Wickwire Spencer Steel produced steel wire for chain link fences. At its busiest, the company had 1,400 employees. Wickwire Spencer Steel closed in 1963. The plant remains vacant and is currently used for industrial waste disposal.
Unfortunately, many of our clients who worked at Wickwire Spencer Steel are now being diagnosed with malignant mesothelioma and lung cancer. Before the 1970s, asbestos was used at the plant because it could be exposed to high temperatures. Asbestos pipe covering and insulation were used at Wickwire Spencer Steel and other asbestos materials were frequently repaired and replaced.
Workers also used hot tops to make steel molds or inglots. The interior of the hot top was coated in refractory materials like asbestos. The hot tops at Wickwire Spencer Steel were coated with either brick or asbestos mortar or asbestos insulating boards. Ferro Engineering and Foseco Inc. produced asbestos insulating boards. The number of boards that would go inside a hot top was dependent upon the size of the molds. Molds ranged from one to ten feet wide. After inglots were cast, asbestos insulating boards in the hot top became ash and needed to be replaced. Workers used air hoses to remove the asbestos ash from hot tops, a process which caused copious amounts of asbestos dust to be emitted into the air.
Asbestos is dangerous because its fibers are extremely fragile and break easily into tiny particles that your body’s air filtration system can’t trap and expel. When asbestos gets into your lungs and stays there, it can cause mesothelioma or lung cancer. Risk of diagnosis increases with the length of time that a person has been exposed although even short exposures can cause mesothelioma or lung cancer. The most common causes of asbestos exposure are in the workplace or from products in the home. Spouses and family members of workers can also be exposed to asbestos dust and fibers from the clothing the workers wore home from job sites like Wickwire Spencer Steel.
Mesothelioma is a rare disease that is diagnosed between 2,500 and 3,000 times each year. Anyone who has been exposed to asbestos is at risk for developing mesothelioma or lung cancer. Although most companies knew that asbestos was dangerous, they continued to allow their employees to work with and around asbestos without protective gear until the late 1970s.
At Belluck & Fox, our nationally recognized asbestos attorneys have extensive experience fighting for families and workers exposed to asbestos. We are proud to have secured more than $1 billion so far for asbestos victims and their families.
We are ready to help you. Contact us today to set up a free consultation, where we will review your claim and discuss all your legal options. Our law firm does not charge any legal fees upfront and we do not get paid unless and until we secure compensation for you.
