Firehouse.com Editor's Note: WBAY-TV has identified the fallen firefighter as 15-year veteran Steven Koeser. The other firefighters were identified as: Brad Woelfel, Michael Fromm, Jeffery Fliss, Matthew Winkel, Joshua Mertens, Kurt Kelling, Chase Fritsch, and Joshua Tyler Scott.

ST. ANNA, Wis. --

A trash bin outside a Wisconsin foundry exploded, killing one firefighter and injuring at least nine others.

Calumet County Sheriff Gerald Pagel told The Post-Crescent of Appleton that the cause of the blast Tuesday night outside the Bremer Manufacturing plant near rural St. Anna was not immediately apparent.

Company president Tom Dolack said the fire broke out between 7:30 p.m. and 8 p.m., but he had no more information on what may have caused it. He said the trash bin that exploded contained scrap aluminum.

A 33-year-old firefighter died at the scene, Calumet County Sheriff's Deputy Brett Bowe told the Post-Crescent. Nine firefighters were injured, said Joyce Casper, a dispatcher with the sheriff's department.

"We're just devastated as a result of the death of a fireman and the injuries," Dolack said at the plant. "It's overwhelming for us as I'm sure it is for their families. This is a very close-knit community."

Roger Brandt, 77, lives about a quarter of a mile from the plant. He said he saw smoke rising from the plant on Tuesday night. As he watched out the window he heard a "terrific boom" and red flames shot 100 feet into the sky over the building, Brandt said.

"It shook the windows. I wondered what happened to the place," he said.

The Bremer plant sits on the side of a hill in the countryside. Outside the plant near a loading dock Wednesday, an investigator from the Occupational Safety and Health Administration milled around a twisted slab of blackened metal and blackened barrels resting on a bed of ashes.

A U.S. flag flew at half-staff outside the plant.

According to its Web site, Bremer specializes in producing aluminum sand castings that are then used by other manufacturers. Bremer's Web site says it employs 120 people and melts about 375,000 pounds of aluminum a month.

The site says the company started in Milwaukee in 1937.