Parkersburg Industrial Fire Story Archives - Page 3 of 3

Company Ordered to Detail Burned Parkersburg Warehouse Inventory

For the latest on the fire in Wood County, see here.

West Virginia regulators on Thursday ordered the Maryland company that owns a South Parkersburg warehouse that burned for days to disclose what materials were consumed by the flames and to spell out plans for disposing of the debris properly.

The Department of Environmental Protection told Intercontinental Export Import Inc. to immediately provide the inventory and submit plans within 10 days for complying with its environmental permits, including proof of proper disposal. The agency also ordered detailed inventories at other sites owned by associated companies in West Virginia and payment of a $60,622 penalty under a prior settlement that had been held in abeyance.

The 420,000-foot (130,000-meter) warehouse property where the fire broke out last week is owned by Columbia, Maryland-based Intercontinental, which says on its website that it buys and sells an array of recycled plastics worldwide. Company representative Somil Desai said Thursday that the business has been working on site with local officials and will continue. He declined immediate comment on the DEP order.

As the huge fire burned over the past week, more than 40 fire stations from Ohio and West Virginia responded. The main fire was put out Saturday though crews were clearing debris and extinguishing hot spots still at midweek.

Recent air-quality testing found that aside from visible soot particles, there were little or no detectable levels of other likely chemicals in the smoke, Wood County emergency officials said in a statement. It added that the soot particle levels represented a moderate impact on air quality comparable to that of a wildfire.

Chiefs Warned Marshal in 2008 About Site of Warehouse Fire

Two volunteer fire chiefs warned West Virginia officials nearly a decade ago about the potential for major fires at local warehouses, one of which has now been burning for days.

Washington Bottom Fire Chief K.C. Linder and Lubeck Fire Chief Mark Stewart wrote a letter dated July 22, 2008 to the State Fire Marshal after Lubeck firefighters had issues accessing a warehouse fire in Parkersburg, The Charleston Gazette-Mail reported.

In the letter, the fire chiefs cited multiple dangerous conditions, including the presence of hazardous materials, a lack of adequate water service and stacks of items blocking access to exits and aisles.

Over the past week, more than 40 fire stations from Ohio and West Virginia have had to respond to a much larger blaze at the same warehouse. Crews were clearing debris and extinguishing hot spots on Wednesday after the fire was put out on Saturday.

The 420,000-foot (130,000-meter) warehouse property is owned by Intercontinental Export Import Inc., or IEI Plastics. The company buys and sells an array of recycled plastics worldwide, according to its website.

Recent air-quality testing conducted through contracts with the Little Rock, Arkansas-based Center for Toxicology and Environmental Health found that aside from visible soot particles, there were little or no detectable levels of other likely chemicals in the smoke, Wood County emergency officials said in a news release. The soot particle levels represented a moderate impact on air quality and compared to that of a wildfire, officials said.

The last Fire Marshal inspection of the warehouse was in 2008, Lawrence Messina, communications director for the state Department of Military Affairs and Public Safety, said. The Fire Marshal office is within the Military Affairs and Public Safety department.

Investigators are still working to determine the status of the sprinkler system at the time the current fire started, Messina said. A probe into what started the fire remains ongoing and no cause has been ruled out.

Parkersburg Industrial Fire: What We Know and Don't Know

For the latest on the fire in Wood County, see here.

Wood County is under a state of emergency as an industrial fire continues to burn at a warehouse just outside Parkersburg city limits. Gov. Jim Justice joined state and county officials to discuss ongoing efforts to put the fire out and to address residents’ health concerns.

Still, a lot of questions remain about the incident and how it might affect residents of the surrounding area. Here’s what we know (and what we don’t know):

The key is getting the fire out. But even that is a question.

Weather patterns continue to be cooperative in terms of response efforts. Heavy rains in and around Parkersburg on Monday knocked a thick plume of smoke and concentrated it closer to the ground. Tuesday morning’s weather brought some relief. As rain moved out, the smoke thinned and headed upward — away from the scene of the fire.

Even with a decrease in the plume’s size and the dissipation of the smell of burnt plastic, incident commander Mark Stewart, of the Lubeck Volunteer Fire Department said there is still no timeline for extinguishing the fire.

With the fire still burning, private firefighting and hazmat firm Specialized Professional Services, Inc. of Washington, Pennsylvania, remains at the scene with local responders.

Officials are still not sure what was in the building when the fire started.

County Commissioner Blair Couch said that a warehouse owner handed Stewart a three-ring binder of material safety data sheets. Couch and other officials said that information is outdated and, thus, may not accurately reflect the materials stored at the facility as of Saturday, when the fire began.

“We’re hoping for the property owner to complete his evaluation. He said his paper work was in the building that is no longer there. Now he’s going through e-mails to get a bill of lading — trying to figure out what they had shipped out,” said Couch. “We have heard from certain industry insiders that have said, ‘We know that’s not there because we never sold them that.'”

Larry Messina of the West Virginia Department of Military Affairs and Public Safety also clarified that state and county officials are trying to obtain recent bills of lading that would show materials that have shipped to and from the facility. He said the owners have told state and county officials they are trying to track down those documents electronically via archived email.

“It’s going to be a little bit of time,” Couch said. “I know there’s just so many people with concerns, me not the least of them.”

So far, officials say air testing shows no signs of health hazards.

Gov. Jim Justice said at a Tuesday morning news conference that air-quality testing from the West Virginia Department of Environmental shows that 150 air samples are below a 1,000 parts per million threshold when tested for carbon monoxide, hydrogen sulfide, chlorine and ammonium.

A representative for the state Department of Environmental Protection said those monitors had at one time been placed right next to the blaze. He said those readings detected levels higher than the 1,000 ppm level and were repositioned to more accurately reflect the air quality being consumed by the community.

County officials have also contracted Arkansas-based environmental consultants Center for Toxicology, Environment & Health to monitor air quality.

Justice and others promised continued attention to air quality to assure residents there are no threats to public health or safety.

The owner of the property has a history in the area.

According to DEP-issued consent orders, Intercontinental Export Import, Inc. has been cited in March 2015 for failing to provide monthly water pollution reports to state regulators. According to its website, IEI is a subsidiary of Sirnaik. The West Virginia Secretary of State’s office has a “Warehousing and Storage” company chartered in Wood County under the name Surnaik Holdings of WV, LLC.

IEI owns five warehousing and storage facilities in Wood County, according to county and state officials. The DEP says IEI have been the owner of the facility that burned since 2004.

Officials failed to provide information about whether the other facilities have been inspected since the fire.

Governor Justice said he nor other state or county officials are aware of the insurance policies obtained by IEI and to what degree their coverage might help with reimbursing the cost of the response, including any law suits that might be filed against the company.

“We don’t know the extent. Now we’ve tried we’ve tried to figure that out. We do not know the extent of the insurance coverage whether it covers all liabilities or whatever,” said Justice. “And, actually, you know this is a private entity and everything and, for all I know, the ownership is trying to do the right things and work in a positive way from what I know today.”

The cause of the fire is under investigation.

The West Virginia State Fire Marshal’s Office is has been on the scene of the fire since Saturday but has yet to determine a cause.

In a Monday evening news conference, officials from the West Virginia State Fire Marshal’s Office said in 2008 there was an operational sprinkler system at the facility. Officials were unsure of the status of the sprinkler system at the time of the fire.

Wood County Moves Forward with Fire Response After Emergency Declaration

For the latest on the fire in Wood County, see here.

Updated: October 24, 2017 at 12:38 a.m.

Governor Jim Justice declared a state of emergency in Wood County on Monday afternoon, following an industrial fire that has burned at the former Ames tool plant since early Saturday morning.

A large, dark plume of smoke and the smell of burnt plastic continues to linger over Parkersburg and the surrounding area, causing schools, municipal and circuit courts, as well as county government to be closed again Tuesday.

State and county officials said Monday evening they still aren’t sure of the exact makeup of the materials that were stored at the facility but are reviewing documentation the owner of the site has handed over.

Larry Messina, spokesman for state Department of Military Affairs and Public Safety, said the Department of Environmental Protection continues to monitor the site, with help from Arkansas-based environmental consulting firm Center for Toxicological, Environmental & Health.

“The goal is to make sure that the testing is as comprehensive as possible to rule out any potential risk to public health and safety,” said Messina. “I think that’s one reason why the county brought in that outside contractor — to make sure we’re very thorough about what what we think is up in the air and what that poses for the people in the area.”

Specialized Professional Services Inc. of Washington, Pennsylvania has also been contracted to assist with firefighting and other aspects of the continued response.

According to DEP-issued consent orders, Intercontinental Export Import, Inc. has been cited in the past — at the same location of the fire — for failing to provide monthly water pollution reports to state regulators. According to its website, IEI is a subsidiary of Sirnaik. The West Virginia Secretary of State’s office has a “Warehousing and Storage” company chartered in Wood County under the name Surnaik Holdings of WV, LLC.

Messina said officials have yet to identify any law or regulation that would have required the property owners to identify its contents to a state agency or program, but also indicated that a review is ongoing.

Moving forward, weather conditions are expected to improve for firefighting efforts as well as air quality in the area, according to Tony Edwards of the National Weather Service in Charleston.

“That plume is going to be able to rise and escape a little better. It should be heading off towards the north and then veer around to the north east in time. But at a more stable trajectory and keep it heading to the north and northeast,” said Edwards. “So, overall, that should help efforts and improve air quality a little bit as we go through time. Unfortunately, [it will not be] anything like we saw over the weekend with the plume going straight up and a good air quality but at least an improvement.”

The state Fire Marshal’s Office is investigating the cause of the fire.

Justice Declares State of Emergency in Response to Wood County Industrial Fire

For the latest on the fire in Wood County, see here.

Updated: Oct. 23, 2017, at 5 p.m.

Gov. Jim Justice declared a state of emergency in Wood County Monday afternoon in response to an industrial fire in Parkersburg that has burned since early Saturday morning.

The fire was reported at about 1 a.m. Saturday at the old Ames tool plant, just outside Parkersburg city limits.

The emergency declaration allows the state to bring in more resources for those fighting the fire. According to a news release from the governor’s office, The declaration will remain in effect for 30 days unless it is terminated or extended by a subsequent proclamation.

Previous story: The mood on Monday morning had shifted from the night before, when an emergency county commission meeting had officials still wondering what the continued response might be.

With a volunteer-led effort that had been stretched to capacity, city water resources depleted and the county expending hundreds of thousands of dollars in just two days, commission president Blair Couch said, with the fire still burning, state officials were helpful overnight.

“Of course no one in that room at that time could make a decision. They had to talk to their higher-ups and make some calls,” Couch said. “Secretary [Jeff] Sandy went to work for us and he was able to get an assurance from the state of West Virginia that bills would be paid. The effort may cost anywhere from 60 to 100,000 [dollars] a day. And it may take four to five days to put this out.”

The fire, which began around 1 a.m. Saturday, is located at 3801 Camden Ave. The facility once housed the former Ames tool plant but is now a warehouse facility owned by Surnaik Holdings of WV, LLC.

Some government facilities, including the offices at the Fourth Circuit Court, closed on Monday. Wood County Schools were also closed and a voluntary shelter has been established for those in the area near the blaze.

Couch said those decisions came as a shift in weather patterns lowered the plume of smoke that’s dissipated but still lingers in areas around Parkersburg.

“It wasn’t such a bad problem, but when it starts lowering and becoming a ground-level problem — it troubled me to no end to see these residents — that if you go by the site on your left hand side is an active industrial fire on the right hand side is businesses and family homes with small children,” he said. “And, so, we’ve got to do something and right now. We’re smelling it in this room — the smell of burnt plastic.”

Officials from the state Department of Environmental Protection continue to monitor the air for particulate matter from the burnt plastics stored at the facility. More detailed air quality monitoring is also being sought through the federal Environmental Protection Agency, as well as private contractors.

Department of Military Affairs and Public Safety Secretary Jeff Sandy said officials are still reviewing Material Safety Data Sheets and trying determine exactly what was in the warehouse when the fire started.

“We are working on that. We have meetings scheduled throughout the day. We are getting what they call bill of ladings, which documents what was purchased and what was in that facility,” he said.

Sandy said various state agencies have supplied diesel fuel, fire foam and other resources to help fight the fire and that the governor’s office has committed to continue providing whatever is needed moving forward.

State Department of Homeland Security and Emergency Management director Jimmy Gianato says state resources will be on site until the fire is out and any potential threats are mitigated.

“Ultimately, the responsibility lies with the owner of the property. So we’re working with them and in trying to make sure that they understand what their long-term responsibilities are to remediate everything,” he said. “DEP is the lead from the state side as far as the environmental piece in the fire marshal has people on scene — so they’ll continue to work on this. So, our resources from the state level will be here until it’s over.”

No injuries have been reported and the cause of the fire is still unknown.

With Resources and Finances Strained, Continued Response to Wood County Fire Remains in Question

For the latest on the fire in Wood County, see here.

Updated: October 22, 2017 at 10:36 p.m.

With resources and funding in question, officials in Wood County are still trying to determine how to deal with a large industrial fire just outside of the city limits of Parkersburg. The fire, which started about 1 a.m. Saturday and destroyed a warehouse facility, is expected to burn for days as local officials still have no timeline as to when the fire will be out.

Thick black smoke continued to billow Sunday night from the building that was once an Ames tool plant. While no injuries have been reported, the scene has been declared a disaster area, Wood County Schools are closed on Monday and local officials have issued a voluntary shelter in place for the surrounding area.

The Wood County Commission held an emergency meeting Sunday night to discuss continued response, as city water resources have been strained and volunteer-led firefighting efforts have been stretched to capacity.

“I spent a lot of time with the incident commander and the issue gets to be that volunteer fire departments are, therefore, volunteer,” said commission president Blair Couch. “It was lucky that it was on a Friday night, Saturday, Sunday because a lot of volunteers were available. We had a lot of units available.”

With volunteer resource availability lessening, county commissioners were joined at the meeting by representatives from the state Department of Environmental Protection, the State Fire Marshal’s Office, the Department of Military Affairs and Public Safety and the Division of Highways, as well as Congressman David McKinley’s office.

Commissioners said the county had spend about $200,000 in two days trying to fight the fire. Private contractor Specialized Professional Services, Inc. of Washington, Pennsylvania estimated continued costs of extinguishing the fire and other remediation efforts at about $60,000 per day, which would take at least five more days. The company delivered firefighting foam to the scene over the weekend.

“We called this special meeting because we’re getting taxed beyond our resources,” said Couch in an interview after the meeting. “We’ve expended funds and reduced the volatile situation to being more manageable, but it continues to burn.”

Couch and other commissioners asked representatives from the company who owns the warehouse, Surnaik Holdings of WV, LLC, if they were able to help finance extinguishing the fire. Company officials provided blueprints of the facility to the commission but did not agree at Sunday night’s meeting to fund continued response. They did offer employee resources to aid other efforts.

“I think that the individual property owner understands that — not only does he have to extinguish this fire, even if some other resource would do that for him — then he has the long phase of cleaning up and mitigating a hazardous disaster,” said Couch after the meeting. “There’s no other way to look at it. He’s going to have to expend money to fix the situation.”

Couch said county officials are also looking to the state to help get the fire out, whether that is manpower and resources or help with funding.

“I think the state has resources but now we’re going away from ‘Can you provide us a truck?’ to ‘Can you provide us money?’ And the subcontractor that’s here that’s offered this service to work on this has agreed to come back at 9:30 in the morning to see if solutions are made,” he said.

The County Commission is scheduled to meet again on Monday morning to make further decisions about financing the response and to what degree Specialized Professional Services, Inc. will be contracted.

Mark Stewart, of the Lubeck Volunteer Fire Department, said plastic pellets were being stored at the warehouse, although he could not specify the exact compounds. He said he could not confirm or deny any additional materials that might have been stored on site but also said Material Safety Data Sheets for the stored materials have been turned over to local and state officials and are currently being reviewed.

The West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection said they have been testing air samples and burnt material from the site, and that the immediate and surrounding area was found to be within acceptable air quality limits.

Stewart told the County Commission roughly 9 million gallons of water had been used in attempting to put the fire out, with about 3 million gallons being drawn from the Little Kanawha River to lessen the strain on Parkersburg’s water supply.

Thirty-one volunteer fire departments from seven counties in West Virginia and Ohio assisted with response efforts thus far. Officials from the state Fire Marshal’s Office say the cause of the fire has yet to be determined and the investigation is ongoing.