By MARK REUTTER
About 1:40 p.m. yesterday, Russell Donnelly heard a distant sound. It started off as a rumble, then increased into a whooshing roar that caused the floor of his house to vibrate. “I thought, what is going on? It sounded like the launching of a Titan rocket booster for an Apollo spaceship.”

In fact, the sound came from a “furnace slip” at the Sparrows Point steel plant about 1½ miles west of his Edgemere neighborhood. The mishap not only shook Donnelly’s house, but caused thick plumes of fire to rise above the mill.

WJZ-13’s Sky Eye helicopter got footage of the discharge from the “L” blast furnace. Debris from the blast showered down on nearby buildings, and small fires were ignited on grass lots.

The fires were put out by Baltimore County firefighters, who responded to a “building fire” at 2:06 p.m. No injuries were reported, and the furnace itself escaped damage, according to mill owner, Severstal North America.

It is not known whether toxic chemicals were released by the discharge. Jay Apperson, a spokesman for the Maryland Department of the Environment, said the agency did not send air pollution inspectors to the Point “because of safety reasons,” but that inspectors would inspect the furnace “in the near future.”

The agency requested a report on the discharge from the company. “Reports typically take days or weeks to complete. Information in a report will typically address estimates of pollutants released and a cause of an incident,” Apperson said in an e-mail.

In a blast furnace, fuel and iron ore are continuously supplied through the top of the furnace, while heated air is blown into the bottom of the chamber. As the material moves downward, chemical reactions take place under temperatures of about 2,000 degrees F. The end products are purified iron and slag filled with chemical wastes.

According to Severstal, excessive pressure built up in the furnace while the rate of heated air was being increased. This triggered a safety valve to open at the top of the furnace, releasing hot gases, iron-ore particles, coke, and other debris into the atmosphere.

“During the time the bleeder valve was opened, there were flames coming out of the furnace top. Once the bleeder valve was closed, normal furnace conditions resumed,” the company said. The buildup of pressure was what caused the loud rumbling sounds heard by Donnelly.

“Big L” is the second largest blast furnace in North America, capable of producing more than 10,000 tons of hot metal daily. The aging furnace has been running at half-capacity and has come under company review on whether to be temporarily shut as a cost-cutting measure.

A former Baltimore Sun reporter, Mark Reutter wrote “Making Steel: Sparrows Point” (2004) and keeps tabs on the steel industry at makingsteel.com . He can be reached at reuttermark@yahoo.com .

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Earlier Brew reports on Sparrows Point:

* “Sparrows Point faces a bleak future as its latest owner stumbles” Brew 5/6/09

* “Severstal says no final decision made to close Sparrows Point blast furnace” Brew  5/14/09

* “Polluting Turners Station and Dundalk,” a Maryland Tradition” Brew 5/31/09

* “Chemical pollution in habor near Sparrows Point appears to be rising, despite court-ordered clean-up.”  Brew 6/22/09

* “Sparrows Point furnace to stay open for now at reduced output”  Brew 7/10/09

* “Anonymous fliers target suit against Sparrows Point polluters, CBF finds shallow water contamination”  Brew 7/30/09

* “Layoffs to begin at Sparrows Point; one third of workforce may be let go” Brew 9/17/09