Oct. 08--LIMA -- An enormous fire fueled by rubber and plastic ripped through a warehouse Tuesday downtown sending black smoke billowing into the sky as firefighters battled to keep the blaze from reaching nearby homes.
The smoke was visible for more than 10 miles away from the massive warehouse fire at Otis Wright & Sons at 707 E. Wayne St. It was the scene where more than 50 firefighters and every fire truck in the city set up to do battle.
The fire was reported at 1:19 p.m. and quickly spread out of control in a warehouse building and moved to six other buildings before firefighters could do much. They took up a defensive position with aerial trucks and from the ground to defend nearby houses, many of which were evacuated as a precaution.
No injuries were reported and everyone who was in the warehouse got out, Lima fire officials said.
A cause of the fire was the last thing on firefighters' minds Tuesday as they battled the blaze that surely would take them through the night and into the next day.
The cause, if it can be determined, would be the job of fire investigators once the fire is out.
All buildings at the site caught fire and were a total loss. The value of the seven buildings on the property was listed at $734,000 on the Allen County Auditor's Office website. No officials had an estimate on the value of the plastic and rubber inside or any other contents.
Southwest winds up to 15 mph fed an already strong fire that raged on too big and too strong to give firefighters any chance to quickly extinguish it.
Even in a city with a large water supply, Lima Fire Chief Mark Heffner said firefighters had to strategically use water because dozens of water hoses were constantly running spraying the flames.
"There will be materials inside burning for quite a while," Heffner said.
Firefighters pulled extra water from Schoonover Lake.
A general alarm, the highest level of a fire alarm, was called and all firefighters in the Lima department who were in town or in the area were called in. Estimates were more than 50 firefighters from the Lima department were on scene.
Fear among people
People living in the area watched in disbelief and fear as an enormous, dark plume of smoke towered over their homes on Pearl Street.
Tim Long and Ashley Miller watched firefighters spray streams of water behind their home to keep it from catching fire. The couple, who are engaged, said it was not their first brush with fire.
"We just lost our house on Rosedale," Long said.
Tuesday's fire brought back bad memories for Long, a third-shift worker at Procter & Gamble, who was sleeping when his Rosedale Avenue home caught fire.
"I woke up and the whole thing looked like this, he said pointing to the smoke overhead Tuesday.
Following the Rosedale Avenue fire, the couple moved their children to their Pearl Street home.
"I'm really hoping they can contain this," he said.
Firefighters and police were ordering bystanders to step back as flames consumed nearby trees. Curious people made their way to the area, despite police requesting people stay away. Traffic was a mess in the area with several streets closed.
The flames warmed air enough to send debris into the air only to have it fall downwind. While most of it floated down, it was enough to form dust-like coating over cars, people and anything else nearby.
First responders went door to door checking to see if houses that were at risk had been vacated.
Other problems
Besides the total loss of the property and contents, the fire was causing other problems.
Dispatchers handling 911 calls were overwhelmed with people reporting the fire and police, well aware of the blaze, were asking that people stop calling even an hour after it first was reported.
Lima firefighters helped Lima school officials release buses from the nearby bus garage at 600 E. Wayne St. School was released on time at 3 p.m. for nearby Lima Senior High School without any problems and all students were safe, said Lima schools spokeswoman Beth Jokinen.
Lima schools sent out alerts to parents telling them their students were safe and dismissal would take place at the scheduled time, Jokinen said.
Air and water quality
Allen County Emergency Management Agency Director Russ Decker was monitoring air quality in the area and water quality on the Ottawa River. River contamination was a major concern because thousands of gallons of water would wash into the river likely with contaminates from the fire that could harm the ecosystem, Decker said.
"We are doing all we can to lessen the impact," Decker said.
Decker was working with the Fire Department and the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency.
Help nearby
All nearby townships, including Bath, American, Shawnee and Perry, were helping Lima firefighters and were on standby to cover any other fires in the city, Decker said.
Perry Township sent a fire truck to the central fire station on South Main Street with a couple of firefighters to respond from that location should another fire call come in, Decker said.
At 6 p.m. fire officials were reporting a thunderstorm moving toward Lima with heavy winds. Plans were being made to remove firefighters from aerial equipment because of possible lightning and high winds.
By 6:45 p.m., lightning and heavy rain moved in, not enough to put out the fire, though. Rain slowed within an hour.
Historical perspective
Tuesday's fire was not the first at the site. In 1999, a building at the scene that was the home of the former Neon Products Inc., once was the largest maker of illuminated signs in the world, caught fire. The company closed its doors in 1977 and Otis Wright moved into the complex in 1979.
At the time of the 1999 fire, the building housed Polywood Inc., a division of Otis Wright. When the company moved to the East Wayne Street location in 1979 a big reason was it offered room to grow.
Officials said in the 1999 fire there were about 3 million pounds of plastic and rubber products lost. The products were ready to be shipped, officials said.
It's unclear how many people work for Otis Wright. At the time of the 1999 fire, the company employed 300 people in Lima and had eight working in the warehouse that burned that day.
Otis Wright and Sons made a business out of hauling scrap steel and brick. When Otis Wright, the company's founder, died on Sept. 29, 1970, he left the company to his sons, Roger, Carl and Bill. The sons disagreed on how the business should operate and split up the company in 1976.
Bill and Carl Wright took over the warehouses, that became Wright Distribution Centers at 1000 E. Hanthorn Road. The youngest of the brothers, Roger Wright, now 76, took over the trucking end of the business. His brothers have since died leaving Wright Distribution to be run by Don Wright, a son of Carl Wright.
The trucking business peaked in the early 1990s with 200 tractors and 800 trailers but declined in the late 1990s and was down to 20 tractors and 185 trailers with about 70 employees.
Copyright 2014 - The Lima News, Ohio
