A home in the Burnside neighborhood caught fire Wednesday morning, after an explosion in a slag pit at the nearby Finkl Steel plant sent flaming debris flying into the air.
Fire Department officials said crews responded to reports of an explosion Wednesday morning at the Finkl Steel plant at 93rd and Kenwood. “It appears that they had a slag pit, they dumped some slag, there was an explosion,” Chicago Fire Department spokesman Larry Langford said.
As firefighters were putting out the fire in the slag pit, and extinguishing spot fires on a nearby roof, they noticed a nearby home on the 9100 block of South Woodlawn Avenue had caught fire. “Residents in the area said they saw fireballs going through the air just after the explosion at Finkl,” Langford said.