DELTA, Ohio — A furnace explosion shook the North Star BlueScope steel plant Saturday, igniting fires inside the mill but causing no serious injuries, a plant official said.

Mike Hanson, North Star’s vice president of sales, said the explosion, reported shortly after 4 p.m., occurred in one of the plant’s two electric-arc furnaces that melt scrap metal for the manufacture of new steel.

Plant emergency personnel responded quickly to the situation, Mr. Hanson said, and firefighters from several area departments assisted in extinguishing “several small fires.”

“We’re assessing the damage at this point,” he told reporters outside the plant gate. “When we know more, we’ll say more.”

Mr. Hanson said the plant, which employs about 370 people, was still operating.

People living nearby reported on social media feeling their houses shake from the explosion up to several miles away and seeing smoke from the plant. The first firefighters arriving at the scene reported smoke and flames, but within an hour little could be seen from beyond plant property.

First Published May 8, 2016, 6:30 a.m.