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Home / Archives / News Archive 1999 / Out of control brush fire nearly levels Estes Industries
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Out of control brush fire nearly levels Estes Industries |
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1999 Archived News by World Wide Web
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Friday, March 05, 1999 |
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PENROSE, Colorada USA -- Hundreds of people were evacuated Friday after an out-of-control brush fire ignited model rocket manufacturer Estes Industries, causing one of its buildings to explode.
The hazardous contents of the building hindered firefighting efforts for hours, but crews had the blaze under control by nightfall. Firefighters stayed on the scene throughout the night to watch for flare-ups.
No one was injured, though some complained of difficulty breathing from the toxic fumes created by the fire. "You could smell it - it was like a sour Fourth of July," said resident Sherry Feldmeyer, who called 911 when she spotted the fire.
The fire, started by area residents doing a controlled burn-off, quickly jumped out of control due to high winds. Officials with the Fremont County Sheriff's Office said the individuals who started the fire would be held accountable and could be charged with arson. Their names were not released Friday night.
"This was not a good day for a controlled burn because winds were gusting 35 to 40 miles per hour," said Dan Brixey of the Cañon City Volunteer Fire Department. "It should never have been attempted."
Firefighters valiantly sprayed water on the burning grass, trying to keep the blaze away from the Estes buildings, which stored highly explosive and toxic
materials used to build model rocket motors. The winds, however, were too strong, and the flames reached one of the outlying buildings that contained 750,000 rocket engines, four 30-gallon drums of ammonium perchlorate and several containers of aluminum powder.
"I've never seen anything like it," said Gene MacKinnon, chief of the Florence Volunteer Fire Department. "The roof and everything came off. It was just a big ball of fire." No one was inside the building at the time.
Fremont County sheriff's Detective Harry Sharp was on the corner of Fremont Avenue and Colorado Highway 50 when the building exploded. "It looked like an atomic bomb went off," said Sharp, referring to a mushroom-like cloud that rose above the fire.
Potentially lethal fumes from the burning chemicals forced firefighters to evacuate people from a one-mile radius around the factory and close down several miles of Colorado Highway 50. "They came and told us we'd have to evacuate, not because of the fire, but because of the chemicals that might be in the air," said Barbara Holmes, who lives less than a mile east of the plant.
The mixture of chemicals hampered firefighters' attempts to get the fire under control. Water, when mixed with aluminum powder, makes the chemical burn hotter and faster, firefighters said. Carbon dioxide, normally used to fight aluminum fires, cannot be used on ammonium perchlorate.
"It just wasn't worth a human life to put guys up there," MacKinnon said. So they let the building burn and kept the flames from spreading to other buildings, which contained several hundred pounds of black powder. "The whole place could have been leveled," said trooper Gary Pike of the Colorado State Patrol's hazardous materials team based out of Pueblo.
Estes President Barry Tunick was on a plane returning from New York when he received the call about the fire. "I'm very proud of the way the company reacted," Tunick said of the employees' quick evacuation. "We suffered significant damage, but that's minor in comparison to any humans getting hurt."
Estes lost its entire inventory of rocket motors, but because the buildings that house their machinery were unscathed, the lost products can be rebuilt, he said. Estes employs about 250 workers. Tunick said he will meet with other company officials today to discuss the fire's implications.
"It's a tragedy," he said. "It gets you very humble." |
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