'Flashback' fire hurts five AK Steel workers

MIDDLETOWN - Five workers sustained minor injuries Monday when a "flashback" fire erupted during a routine maintenance procedure at AK Steel Corp.

Emergency crews from the city fire department were called to the company's coke plant at 2:19 p.m.

Alan McCoy, company spokesman, said three workers were treated at the plant's on-site medical facility and were released to return to work. The flashback occurred during a cleaning procedure that is performed daily, and plant officials were trying to figure out what caused it, McCoy said.

He said the Occupational Safety and Health Administration was not summoned because the nature of the incident did not meet that agency's criteria for opening a case.

Deputy Fire Chief Jim Hall said two workers were taken to Middletown Regional Hospital for observation.

Union Twp. man arraigned in arson

BATAVIA - A Union Township man was arraigned Monday on charges he started a fire that caused $2.5 million damage to a hotel under construction in Milford, the second time he set a fire there, police said.

Cody Moore, 18, was charged with two counts of aggravated arson and one count of arson and vandalism.

Police allege that Moore started the early Sunday morning fire and one on March 23 at the site. Moore was arrested after being questioned Sunday near the scene of the fire.

According to police reports, a gas can was found in the back of his pickup truck and a pack of matches was in the driver's seat.

Moore, according to police reports, said he did not mean to burn the hotel to the ground, but merely send a message to the developer. D.A.G. Construction, based in Cincinnati, said that Moore had never been an employee of the company.

Woman, 92, convicted in fatal car accident

LEBANON - A 92-year-old woman who ran over a fellow resident at the Otterbein Lebanon retirement community last month was convicted Monday of vehicular homicide.

Marianne Temple entered a plea of no contest to the misdemeanor charge in a brief hearing in Lebanon Municipal Court.

She will be sentenced in about two weeks, and faces up to six months in jail and a fine of up to $1,000 in the March 26 death of 93-year-old Rose Kintigh.

Prosecutors said they don't want Temple sentenced to jail, but do want her to be banned from driving.

Kintigh was struck in a parking lot on the Otterbein campus off Ohio 741.

Warren County sheriff's officials said that Temple was on her way to pick up her husband. She told investigators she swerved to avoid a woman in a golf cart and inadvertently applied her foot to the brake and gas pedals simultaneously, authorities said.

Deerfield fire lanes topic of meeting

DEERFIELD TWP. - The public is invited to discuss proposed fire lanes at 7 p.m. today at Fire Rescue Station 58, 2095 Kings Mills Road.

The lanes would be on the west side of Maple Street, the south side of Miami Street and the north side of Riverwood Trail Drive.

Township officials say the lanes are needed so crews can reach the emergency road installed when the Riverwood Trails subdivision was developed.

Hearing on Butler, Warren bus fare raise

A public hearing to discuss raising commuter bus fares in Butler and Warren counties will be held at 4 p.m. April 29 at the Albert B. Sabin Cincinnati Convention Center.

At the request of the individual counties, Metro is considering raising the fares from $1.75 to $2 each way. The hearing will be at the convention center's south meeting room 243. Comments also may be submitted by April 29 by e-mail to info@sorta.com, by fax to 621-5291 or in writing to SORTA, Suite 408, 414 Walnut St., Cincinnati, OH 45202.

For further information, contact Sallie Hilvers at 632-7681.

Retired neurosurgeon gets national award

A retired Cincinnati neurosurgeon has been awarded the Harvey Cushing Medal - the highest honor given by the American Association of Neurological Surgeons - for a career of achievements.

Dr. Stewart Dunsker, who retired last year after 31 years with the Mayfield Clinic & Spine Institute, had served as director of neurosurgery at Christ Hospital and director of the University of Cincinnati's spine surgery division, and was among the founders of a national spine surgery subspecialty organization in the 1980s.

Dunsker was named Ohio neurosurgeon of the year in 1992.

- Compiled from staff and wire reports