Ohio

Silo explosion kills two firefighters

Firefighters were mourning the loss of two fallen comrades killed when an explosion blew the top off a concrete silo at a lumber company in New Knoxville in western Ohio.

Kenneth Jutte and John Garman were from the 32-member fire department in nearby New Bremen, which hadn’t lost a firefighter in the line of duty since 1896. A black piece of cloth was draped over the firehouse’s garage doors Wednesday.

Jutte, 44, and another firefighter were atop the silo filled with wood shavings and sawdust when it exploded and Garman was in an aerial bucket at roof level, said New Knoxville Fire Chief Scott Schroer.

Authorities on Thursday were still trying to determine the cause of the explosion, which also injured seven firefighters and two of the plant’s co-owners — John and Jack Hoge — all on the ground.

DETROIT

Kevorkian loses latest bid for release

Assisted-suicide proponent Jack Kevorkian lost another bid to end the prison time he’s serving in the death of a terminally ill man who was televised receiving a lethal injection in 1998.

U.S. District Judge Nancy Edmunds denied Kevorkian’s petition Monday for a writ of habeas corpus.

Kevorkian, 75, was sentenced to 10 to 25 years after being convicted of second-degree murder in the death of Thomas Youk, 52, who had Lou Gehrig’s disease. Kevorkian is eligible for parole in 2007.

Utah

Brothers found dead after diving in canal

Two brothers who went scuba diving in an irrigation canal marked by “No Swimming” signs were pulled out dead Thursday after being trapped overnight.

The bodies of Ashton Hobbs, 23, and Byron Hobbs, 21, were found inside a 1,200-foot concrete tube that diverts water from the canal into a farm field in Highland.

Rescuers partially drained the canal and rappelled into the 8-foot-wide tube, which extends some 100 feet downward before leveling out, Utah County Sheriff’s Sgt. Spencer Cannon said. The end of the tube emptying into the field has a grate on it.

“It’s not at all for diving,” Cannon said.