Gapers Block published from April 22, 2003 to Jan. 1, 2016. The site will remain up in archive form. Please visit Third Coast Review, a new site by several GB alumni.
✶ Thank you for your readership and contributions. ✶
Thursday, March 27
A barge exploded into flames and sank in the Sanitary and Shipping Canal on the South Side, nearly directly below the Cicero Avenue Bridge. Debris landed on the bridge, but amazingly no cars were hurt. At least one barge worker is still missing, and the clarified oil slurry the barge was carrying now pollutes the canal.