Officials identify 2 men killed in Idaho gas station explosion

BOISE, Idaho (AP) — Authorities have identified two people killed when a gas station exploded and started a fire in a remote Idaho town last week.

The Clearwater County Sheriff's Office said Brandon Cook, 53, of Orofino and Wesley Lineberry, 62, of Pierce were both killed in the explosion at the Atkinson Distributing station in Cardiff on Sept. 11.

Two others were badly burned in the explosion and subsequent fire, and they remained hospitalized on Wednesday. Separate GoFundMe pages identified the injured as fuel tanker driver Donny Billeter and gas station attendant Roxann Hubbs.

A fuel tanker semi truck was in the process of filling the above-ground tanks at the station when the explosion happened just after 3 p.m., said Idaho State Fire Marshal Knute Sandahl. The blast destroyed the tanker and sent debris including truck parts, piping, pieces of the tank and chunks from the gas station building flying across an area about the size of a city block, Sandahl said.

Both the tanker truck driver and the gas station attendant were near the truck when the explosion occurred. The bodies of Lineberry and Cook were found just outside the gas station, but investigators have not yet confirmed if they were inside or outside the building when the disaster began, Sandahl said.

It's not yet clear what caused the explosion, Sandahl said, and the National Transportation Safety Board and the Occupational Safety and Health Administration are assisting in the investigation.

“We're digging deep and it's just going to take some time,” said Sandahl. “I'm hoping we'll have something a little bit more definitive to release in October sometime.”

Some nearby buildings were also damaged by the explosion and fire, and the remaining fuel at the site has been an obstacle for investigators. A regional hazardous materials response team was called in to help mitigate the danger.

Gas station explosions are rare, Sandahl said.

“In my 19 years of being a state fire marshal here in Idaho, this is the first incident I'm aware of,” he said.

Offloading — the process of moving fuel from a tanker truck to a station's storage tanks — increases the risk somewhat but is still typically a very safe process because the drivers follow specific procedures, he said.

“Quite honestly, I think the most dangerous thing is fueling up your vehicle while smoking or filling plastic gas cans in the back of your pickup truck,” which increases the risk of sparks from static electricity, Sandahl said. “As we know from high school chemistry, it's actually the fumes that are volatile, and if there is a spark introduced, it can cause a problem."

This photo provided by U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives was taken in the aftermath of the Sept. 11, 2024, explosion and fire at a gas station in the small mountain community of Cardiff, Idaho. (U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives via AP)

This photo provided by U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives was taken in the aftermath of the Sept. 11, 2024, explosion and fire at a gas station in the small mountain community of Cardiff, Idaho. (U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives via AP)

This photo provided by the Idaho State Fire Marshal’s Office taken on Sept. 13, 2024, shows the aftermath of the Sept. 11, explosion and fire at a gas station in the small mountain community of Cardiff, Idaho. (Idaho State Fire Marshal’s Office via AP)

This photo provided by the Idaho State Fire Marshal’s Office taken on Sept. 13, 2024, shows the aftermath of the Sept. 11, explosion and fire at a gas station in the small mountain community of Cardiff, Idaho. (Idaho State Fire Marshal’s Office via AP)

This photo provided by the Idaho Transportation Department shows the fire that occurred after a gas station exploded as a fuel tanker was filling the above-ground tanks on Sept. 11, 2024, in Cardiff, Idaho. (Idaho Transportation Department via AP)

WASHINGTON (AP) — Nippon Steel and U.S. Steel filed a federal lawsuit challenging the Biden administration's decision to block a proposed nearly $15 billion deal for Nippon to acquire Pittsburgh-based U.S. Steel..

The suit, filed Monday in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia, alleges that it was a political decision and violated the companies' due process.

“From the outset of the process, both Nippon Steel and U. S. Steel have engaged in good faith with all parties to underscore how the Transaction will enhance, not threaten, United States national security, including by revitalizing communities that rely on American steel, bolstering the American steel supply chain, and strengthening America’s domestic steel industry against the threat from China," the companies said in a prepared statement Monday. “Nippon Steel is the only partner both willing and able to make the necessary investments.”

Nippon Steel had promised to invest $2.7 billion in U.S. Steel’s aging blast furnace operations in Gary, Indiana, and Pennsylvania’s Mon Valley. It also vowed not to reduce production capacity in the United States over the next decade without first getting U.S. government approval.

Biden on Friday decided to stop the Nippon takeover — after federal regulators deadlocked on whether to approve it — because “a strong domestically owned and operated steel industry represents an essential national security priority. ... Without domestic steel production and domestic steel workers, our nation is less strong and less secure," he said in a statement.

While administration officials have said the decision was unrelated to Japan's relationship with the U.S. — this is the first time a U.S. president has blocked a merger between a U.S. and Japanese firm.

Biden departs the White House in just a few weeks.

The president's decision to block the deal comes after the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States, known as CFIUS, failed to reach consensus on the possible national security risks of the deal last month, and sent a long-awaited report on the merger to Biden. He had 15 days to reach a final decision.

In a separate lawsuit filed in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Pennsylvania on the same day, the companies accused steel-making rival Cleveland-Cliffs Inc. and its CEO, Lourenco Goncalves, in coordination with David McCall, the head of the U.S. Steelworkers union, of “engaging in a coordinated series of anticompetitive and racketeering activities” to block the deal.

In 2023 before U.S. Steel accepted the buyout offer from Nippon, Cleveland-Cliffs offered to buy U.S. Steel for $7 billion. U.S. Steel turned down the offer and later accepted a nearly $15 billion all-cash offer from Nippon Steel, which is the deal that Biden nixed Friday.

The companies allege that Goncalves, in collusion with the U.S. Steelworkers, maneuvered to prevent any party other than Cleveland-Cliffs from acquiring U.S. Steel and to damage the Pittsburgh manufacturer’s ability to compete.

Neither the Steelworkers nor Ohio's Ohio’s Cleveland-Cliffs responded immediately to requests by The Associated Press for comment.

Nippon and U.S. Steel said in the lawsuit that they submitted three draft national security agreements to CFIUS in the fall to address any concerns.

The companies said in their lawsuit that CFIUS was told not to offer any counterproposals or hold discussions with them. Nippon and US Steel argue that the review process was manipulated so that the outcome would support a decision they say Biden had already made.

The companies said that President Biden used “undue influence to advance his political agenda.”

Nippon, however, will face an incoming administration that has also vowed to block the deal.

President-elect Donald Trump last month underscored his intention to block the deal, and pledged to use tax incentives and tariffs to strengthen the iconic American steelmaker.

Trump had vowed early in the presidential campaign that he would “instantaneously” block the deal, and he reiterated that sentiment in a post on his Truth Social platform in early December.

Shares of United States Steel Corp. rose more than 3% before the opening bell Monday.

FILE - This April 26, 2010, file photo shows the United States Steel logo outside the headquarters building in downtown Pittsburgh. (AP Photo/Gene J. Puskar, File)

FILE - A staff enters doorway next to Nippon Steel logo at the company's Kashima Plant in Kashima, Japan on Friday, Dec. 6, 2024. (AP Photo/Ayaka McGill, File)

FILE - This is a portion of US Steel's Edgar Thomson Works in Braddock, Pa., on Sunday, Apr., 28, 2024. (AP Photo/Gene J. Puskar, File)

FILE - This is a portion of US Steel's Edgar Thomson Works in Braddock, Pa., on Sunday, Apr., 28, 2024. (AP Photo/Gene J. Puskar, File)