Construction Site

Propane tank explosions at the Oklahoma Road Middle School construction site in Sykesville were accidental, caused when a construction worker burning trash left the fire unattended, a spokesman for the state fire marshal's office said yesterday.The fire spread, igniting wooden pallets that caused two 100-pound propane cylinders to explode and two more to vent, said Deputy Chief Bob Thomas.A window at the school was broken during the fire and about $2,000 worth of roofing material stored near the tanks was destroyed, he said.

Four protesters were arrested - one of whom was pepper-sprayed - near Johns Hopkins Hospital after police say they refused to follow officers' orders and shoved officers who attempted to disperse them.  Anthony Guglielmi, the Police Department's chief spokesman, said the protesters locked arms and refused to allow trucks to enter a construction site at the intersection of Rutland Avenue and Eager Street. Police said organizers told protesters over a megaphone to stand their ground as police ordered them to move to a "safe location.

A dump truck operator was killed at a Columbia construction site yesterday when part of the truck's rear loader crushed him as he was fixing a pipe on top of the cab, Howard County police said.The name of the victim, an employee of Ingram Excavation Inc. in Baltimore, was not released until police could notify his family, said Sgt. Dave Richards, a police spokesman.About 2 p.m. yesterday, police said, the victim was dumping a load from a green Mack truck at the construction site of Snowden Ridge, a townhouse community under construction by Westbrook Homes near the Gateway business development in Columbia's Owen Brown village.

A suspicious pattern of bidding on state grants for installing less-polluting septic systems — part of a wide-ranging critique of the Maryland Department of the Environment — has prompted legislative auditors to call for a criminal investigation. In a report released Thursday, auditors found a series of fiscal, management and regulatory problems at the agency, including potential violations of state law for hiring a retiring employee as a consultant. The audit also faulted the department's handling of a computer system upgrade and oversight of construction sites, hazardous-materials facilities and rental housing containing lead paint.

County police arrested two Pasadena men Tuesday after finding in a truck about $2,000 worth of windows, glass sliding doors and a frame kit that had been reported stolen from a construction site on Rock Springs Court in Aspen Park in Pasadena.Anthony D. Nash, 31, of the 7700 block of W. Shore Road and George W. Morrow, 36, of the 200 block of Second St. were each charged with second-degree burglary and theft over $300. Both men were being held at the county Detention Center yesterday; Nash in lieu of $75,000 bail and Morrow in lieu of $18,000 bail.

Investigators from the Environmental Protection Agency, Maryland Department of the Environment and the attorney general's office yesterday combed an Anne Arundel highway construction site looking for hazardous materials that may be buried there.As of late yesterday, the search at the intersection of U.S. 50 and Interstate 97 just north of Annapolis had uncovered two 55-gallon barrels -- one containing a "grease-like" substance, said Liz Kalinowski, a spokeswoman for the State Highway Administration.

Baltimore County police are trying to identify a woman whose body was found yesterday morning at a Reisterstown construction site. Employees working on a 14-unit townhouse development at West Cherry Hill Court and Franklin Boulevard said they did not notice anything unusual when they drove by a large pile of sand yesterday about 7 a.m. Walking around the construction site 40 minutes later, they found the woman's body. Workers at the site said the woman was lying on her side and that she was partially dressed.

A man was killed yesterday when a tree fell on a bulldozer he was operating at a Frederick County construction site, said state police said. Charles Augustus Bartholow, 63, was knocking down trees and moving debris about 7:20 a.m. at a residential building site in the 4500 block of Burkittsville Road in Burkittsville, poilice said. One of the trees apparently fell and struck Bartholow in the head, police said. Bartholow of South Jefferson Street in Frederick died a short time later at Frederick Memorial Hospital, police said.

Diesel fuel and hydraulic fluids that spilled when a large piece of construction equipment caught fire and burned on Old New Windsor Road on Thursday were cleaned up several hours after the blaze by workers from the state Spill Response Team, a spokesman for the Department of the Environment said.Michael Sullivan, the spokesman, said the spill occurred when the fire burned through fuel and hydraulic lines.Mr. Sullivan said the liquids were confined to a small area by a dike the response team built to prevent them from reaching a nearby stream.

A construction crane tipped over and crashed to the ground at a Maryland City site yesterday, severing a masonry worker's legs and injuring the machine operator, Anne Arundel County fire officials said. William Dobson, 52, an employee of Laurel-based Robbins Masonry Inc., was flown to Maryland Shock Trauma Center in Baltimore, where he was listed in critical condition yesterday afternoon. Officials with the crane company, W.O. Grubb Steel Erection & Crane Rental Inc., said that the company is conducting its own investigation and declined to comment further on the incident.

What on earth was an 18th-century Chinese coin doing buried in a wooded patch of Columbia open space? Its finder, Rob La Luna, will probably never know. It's the most unexpected and surprising discovery he has made during his avocational hunts for missing metallica, including Civil War artifacts and other objects that in this section of the country could well go back far earlier. Still, around these parts, "the Civil War is everywhere," he says. We're no Antietam or Gettysburg, but, he says of the troops, "they'd camp for a day on the way somewhere else, or stay two months.

A 27-year-old construction worker from Pennsylvania was killed and another worker severely injured after officials said a precast concrete wall collapsed Friday morning at the slots parlor construction site at Arundel Mills mall. Inspectors with the state agency charged with ensuring workplace safety are investigating the accident, the second time this month in which a worker was injured at the site. The general contractor for the project, which is being developed by Baltimore-based Cordish Cos., closed the construction site on the parking lot of the mall until Monday.

The following is compiled from police reports from the Towson and Cockeysville precincts. Our policy is to include descriptions when there is enough information to make identification possible. Towson Investment Place, unit block, between 4 p.m. May 24 and 1 p.m. May 25. Five hundred feet of copper pipe stolen from construction site. Investment Place, unit block, between 3 p.m. May 20 and 6:30 a.m. May 23. Two hundred feet of 4-inch copper pipe stolen building under construction.

Police reports in Baltimore city and county: Western Baltimore Shooting : A man was shot in the right hip about noon Sunday in the 1500 block of W. Lexington St. and ran to his home and called police. From there, he was taken by a city Fire Department ambulance to Maryland Shock Trauma Center and was reported in good condition. No arrest had been made and details were not available. District detectives were investigating. Northwestern Baltimore Shooting : A man who was shot multiple times in the upper body about 9:30 p.m. Thursday in the 2800 block of Violet Ave. remains in good condition at Maryland Shock Trauma Center.

Two elementary school students were rescued Wednesday morning by city firefighters after they became stuck in a mound of mud at a construction site near their school, said a spokesman for the Fire Department. Because of their ages, their names were not released. About 8 a.m., the boy, 12, and the girl, 8, were walking along Sinclair Lane near Clareway on their way to classes at Sinclair Lane Elementary School when they entered a muddy area and became stuck several feet from dry land, said Chief Kevin Cartwright, the spokesman.

The problem: A construction site on Clipper Mill Road sits idle for months, detouring drivers. The backstory: Anyone misplace a backhoe? That's what Greg Madison has been wondering as he meanders through Baltimore's Hampden neighborhood, following a detour around construction on Clipper Mill Road while commuting between his Woodberry home and Mount Vernon office. In July, workers erected a Jersey wall and began some construction. Shortly afterward, however, work stopped and equipment including a backhoe remained idle, according to Madison.

An Anne Arundel County police officer was struck in the head and seriously injured early yesterday by a rock thrown by a protester during union picketing at the construction site of Arundel Mills mall. Western District Officer Martin Freeman, who was knocked unconscious, was taken by ambulance to the Maryland Shock Trauma Center in Baltimore. Police said the 10-year veteran was being treated for a concussion and would probably be held overnight for observation. Seven demonstrators were arrested on charges of disorderly conduct and impeding the flow of traffic, police said.

Thirteen illegal aliens, including two minors, were arrested Thursday at the downtown construction site of the Waterloo Place apartments, the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service reported.The workers were arrested at the entrance gate of the Mount Vernon-area project after a monthlong INS investigation that was prompted by complaints from Baltimore construction unions.The workers, from Mexico and Central America, each posted $500 bond and were released pending a deportation hearing later before an administrative law judge.