Blast Furnace

HOWARD COUNTY CENTER FOR THE ARTS8510 High Ridge Road, Ellicott City.Howard County artistsIn this biennial exhibit of drawings by four area artists, can be found four different approaches to the medium: James Atkins' abstract and representational charcoals, Nadezda Prvulovic's large (6-by-6 feet) pencil and charcoal rendition of a blast furnace, Diana Marta's piece with neon and plexiglass, and Aline Feldman's drawings in black and white, pastels and monoprints with color added on top.OC Through Feb. 7 (closed Dec. 24 to Jan. 1)

Richard S. Hoffer, 64, Bethlehem Steel foreman Richard Stephen Hoffer, a retired Bethlehem Steel Corp. foreman, died of colon cancer Saturday at his home in Edgemere. He was 64 and had previously lived in Edgewood. He retired last year after 41 years at the Sparrows Point plant, where he was a general foreman in the blast furnace division. Born in Bethlehem, Pa., he earned a degree in mining engineering from Lehigh University. As a young man, he served in the Marine Corps. He coached baseball for the Harford County recreation department and was a member of the Edgewood High School Boosters Club.

Nine workers repairing a huge iron furnace at the Bethlehem Steel Corp. Sparrows Point facility were hurt yesterday when a boom on a 250-ton crane collapsed and fell about 250 feet.Baltimore County Fire Battalion Chief Mark Hubbard said the boom fell shortly after 10 a.m. while employees of various contractors were repairing a blast furnace.Three of those injured were treated for minor injuries at Johns Hopkins Bayview Medical Center. The six others were treated at the Bethelem Steel dispensary, Hubbard said.

Harry Richard Spurrier Jr., a retired Bethlehem Steel Corp. worker and Navy veteran, died of stroke complications Sunday at Laurelwood Care Center in Elkton. The former Essex resident was 87. Mr. Spurrier was born in Baltimore and raised in the Hampden-Woodberry area. He attended city public schools and during the Depression worked in the Civilian Conservation Corps in Glen Rock, Pa. A week after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Mr. Spurrier enlisted in the Navy. Serving on the USS Barnegat, a seaplane tender, as chief supply officer, he traveled during the war years to North Africa, England, Brazil and Iceland.

Even though the picket signs were ready to go, union and management officials at Bethlehem Steel Corp. yesterday planned round-the-clock negotiations in the hope of reaching an agreement before a strike deadline of midnight tonight."

Officials from Chicago-based Esmark Inc. toured Sparrows Point yesterday, the latest in a string of potential buyers that have filed through the Baltimore County steel plant in the past two weeks. Netherlands-based Mittal Steel Co. NV, which must sell Sparrows Point to abide by a Justice Department ruling, has been tight-lipped about who has come through the plant. Workers say the tours are led by managers, who refuse to disclose who the interested parties are. Esmark's chairman and chief executive officer, James P. Bouchard, confirmed yesterday that he was at the plant for a tour.

Three people were arrested and charged with setting a fire in a Pikesville apartment building yesterday that left 30 residents homeless and produced 10-foot flames and billowing smoke that was visible for miles. No one was injured in the three-alarm blaze, which began about 9:30 a.m., fire officials said. Baltimore County police said late yesterday that a man and two female juveniles were in custody on arson charges. Their identities were not immediately available. It took about 75 firefighters more than an hour to control the fire, which heavily damaged a three-story building in the Owings Chase complex in the 4400 block of Old Court Road.

Suffering from a slump in demand for steel and higher operating costs, Bethlehem Steel Corp. today reported a loss of $39.2 million, or 60 cents a share, on sales of $1.05 billion in the first quarter.The loss compares with a profit of $21 million, or 20 cents a share, on sales of $1.2 billion in the first quarter of 1990.Including payments to holders of preferred stock, the net loss was $45.3 million, compared with a profit of $15 million a year ago.The company said it would issue a dividend announcement tomorrow.

Bethlehem Steel Corp., which owns the Sparrows Point steel mill in Baltimore County, lost $60.6 million, or 88 cents a share, during the third quarter compared to a profit of $10.1 million, or 5 cents a share, during the 1990 third quarter.Net sales were $1.1 billion, down 7 percent from 1990 third-quarter revenues of $1.2 billion.The company blamed the loss on falling steel prices and increased operating costs. There were also higher than usual costs associated with construction work and the start-up of the modernized hot strip mill at Sparrows Point and a blast furnace at its plant in Burns Harbor, Ind.For the first nine months, the company lost $128.

In a room filled with semiautomatic Uzis, .357-caliber Magnums and scores of other confiscated guns, Mayor Kurt L. Schmoke and Police Commissioner Edward V. Woods urged Baltimore residents yesterday to help them remove more illegal weapons from the streets.Police have seized 326 handguns, rifles and shotguns since Dec. 13 -- only a fraction of the number carried on the streets and used to commit violent crimes, Mayor Schmoke said.Of the 305 people slain in Baltimore last year, 207, nearly 68 percent, were killed by firearms, said Dennis S. Hill, a police spokesman.