1 Missing in Barge Explosion

Authorities searched Wednesday for a man believed to be missing after a barge carrying thousands of gallons of a gooey petroleum byproduct exploded, caught fire and then sank in a ship canal.

The man was believed to have been working on the vessel when it burst into flames in the Chicago Sanitary and Ship Canal on the city’s southwest side, said Mac Meade, a spokesman for the Coast Guard in Chicago. The search was scheduled to resume this morning.

A boiler on the barge apparently exploded, igniting the clarified slurry oil, which is a byproduct created when refining petroleum, said Illinois Environmental Protection Agency spokeswoman Maggie Carson.