Fires force employees to flee steel plant at Sparrows Point

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Two fires in an ore-handling building at Severstal Steel Co. at Sparrows Point on Tuesday afternoon forced the evacuation of several employees and brought nearly two dozen pieces of fire apparatus from several Baltimore County fire stations and the steel plant to the scene, said a Fire Department communications officer. There were no injuries. About 2 p.m., a fire was reported in a screen machine on the third floor and was extinguished in about 30 minutes. A second fire was reported later on the seventh floor and was also quickly extinguished. Firefighters from county stations at Dundalk, Edgemere, Eastview, Wise Avenue and Essex responded. The cause of the fires was being investigated.

- Richard Irwin

Rescuers work for hours to pull horse from sinkhole

Rescue workers say it took more than five hours to rescue a horse from a 12-foot sinkhole near Woodsboro. But Brooke Vrany of Days End Farm Horse Rescue in Lisbon said Tuesday the horse named Chief is doing fine despite his cold and muddy ordeal. The horse fell into a sinkhole that opened up Monday at a Creagerstown Road farm. Advanced technical rescue teams from Frederick and Carroll counties worked with area volunteer firefighters through much of the afternoon and early evening to get Chief out of the hole. They dug a ditch, got a rubber sled underneath the animal and pulled him out by hand, using a system of ropes and cables.

- Associated Press

Bay watershed has biofuel potential, report says

The Chesapeake Bay Commission says a new report outlines the Chesapeake Bay watershed's biofuel potential. The report, scheduled to be released today by the commission and the Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture, will detail the findings and recommendations of the Chesapeake Biofuels Advisory Panel. The report is the third and last in a series by the commission. The commission says the emerging biofuels industry has the potential to provide thousands of jobs over the next 12 years and significant amounts of fuel while helping to achieve bay restoration goals. Commission spokesman Matt Mullin says the report looks at biofuels made from plants such as switchgrass and forest slash, the debris left over after timber is cut.

- Associated Press