Fuel

LOS ANGELES -- In a smoky parking lot in South-Central Los Angeles, Ruby Galude, 55, stared in disbelief at the wreckage of her local grocery store. "I'm a diabetic. This is where I get all my juices and foods," she said, peering at shards of glass and soaked debris. "What am I going to do now?"A few miles away, Paul C. Hudson arrived at his family-run savings and loan, a community fixture since 1947 in a neighborhood that has a grave shortage of banks. Wednesday night it burned down. "Just the exterior wall was left standing," he said.

Siphons in hand, Internal Revenue Service inspectors are cracking down on truckers driving on Maryland highways with untaxed fuel in their tanks.It's a far cry from Prohibition-era investigations, when IRS agents and Elliot Ness brought down Al Capone's mob. But tax evasion is tax evasion, and the government is going after violators with hefty fines.Two IRS "diesel fuel inspectors" -- a newly created title in the agency -- siphoned fuel from 30 trucks stopped yesterday along Interstates 83 and 70, and identified three that might have been using untaxed fuel.

A tanker truck carrying nearly 9,000 gallons of gasoline overturned yesterday in Wagner's Point in southern Baltimore, spilling fuel onto a roadway and into sewer drains and a creek, said a Fire Department spokesman. Battalion Chief Hector Torres said the tanker overturned at Northbridge and Fairfield roads.

SEOUL, South Korea -- North Korea has refused to allow the International Atomic Energy Agency to conduct tests of spent fuel that could clear up a mystery surrounding the nation's nuclear weapons program, an agency official said yesterday.North Korea had indicated that it would begin replacing the fuel rods in its biggest nuclear reactor next week and had invited the inspectors to observe the process.But the atomic energy agency, a branch of the United Nations, had also been seeking assurances that it could take measurements of the spent fuel, which could indicate whether North Korea has diverted any for reprocessing for its weapons program.

Coast Guard and Ocean City public works crews completed the cleanup yesterday of an estimated 71 gallons of diesel fuel that spilled into Sinepuxent Bay when a pipe broke near the Talbot Street Pier, officials said.The Ocean City Office of Emergency Management said the spill occurred about 6: 15 p.m. Monday when a 2-inch pipe that supplied fuel oil at a marina ruptured.The fuel spilled from a pipe at Angler Marina near Talbot Street, said Lt. j.g. Eric Miller of the Coast Guard's marine safety office in Hampton Roads, Va.Miller said the spill was contained by 8 a.m. yesterday with the help of a containment boom placed in the water.

Those dismayed by the cost of gas on the roads ought to stop at a marina. Prices for gasoline at some of the region's fuel docks are hovering close to $4 a gallon - about a dollar above the average price of gas on the roads this month. Boaters aren't putting fancy fuel in their vessels. They pump the same stuff you buy at the corner gas station, but for a variety of reasons it costs more. Plus, powerboats guzzle fuel faster than even the heftiest SUV. At cruising speeds - about 26 mph - some powerboats get as little as one mile to the gallon, for an hourly fuel cost of more than $100.

If you are a boater -- racer, cruiser or fisherman -- by now several weekends have been spent puttering around the marina or storage area in the yard or drive, getting the boat ready for the season.The hull has been inspected, washed and waxed, the bottom painted, the engine de-winterized and tuned.Electrical systems have been checked, including navigation lights, radios, Loran or GPS units. Charts have been updated or replaced. Flares, fire extinguishers and safety kits have been checked and replaced or refilled.

Nine Baltimore area trucking or fuel distribution companies are facing more than $350,000 in government fines and back taxes for buying and selling high-sulfur heating oil as diesel fuel.The fines stem from a joint investigation by the state comptroller's office and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency that benefited from federal regulations requiring diesel fuels to be color coded. By substituting similar fuels, the companies avoided state and federal taxes on diesel, officials said.

Iraq's small stock of highly enriched reactor fuel has not been diverted to build a nuclear weapon, the International Atomic Energy Agency reported yesterday. The announcement, which followed a technical examination of the Iraqi uranium by international experts, seemed likely to quash speculation that Baghdad might have built a nuclear explosive device using the reactor fuel.The fuel, 27.6 pounds of 93-percent-pure uranium 235, was salvaged from Iraq's Osirak research reactor in 1981 after an Israeli air raid destroyed the reactor.

Baltimore County police, firefighters and state environmental officials went door-to-door early today in the Hillendale neighborhood to warn residents about dangerous fumes after more than 4,000 gallons of gasoline leaked from an underground gas station tank at Loch Raven Boulevard and Taylor Avenue.Police said the leaking fuel was traced to the Pleasant Plains Amoco station about 12: 48 a.m., and police were dispatched to the scene to detour traffic and assist in warning residents.Police said none of the leaking fuel found its way onto the street, but that an unknown amount apparently found its way into storm drains under the street.