Six Firefighters Hurt in Blast at Saegertown, PA, Chemical Facility
The Meadville Tribune, Pa.
(TNS)
SAEGERTOWN — A “major explosion” ripped through a building at Parker Lord Corp. in Saegertown at around 10:40 a.m. Sunday in an incident that sent approximately 13 people to the hospital, according to Chuck Lawrence, who leads emergency management for Saegertown borough.
“The initial crew was blown right out of the building,” Lawrence said in an interview in front of the chemical adhesives plant hours later as four aerial engines continued to shoot water from above into the structure.
Multiple firefighters on scene at the time of the explosion feared that the blast would prove fatal for one or more of the four firefighters who led an interior attack on the blaze.
“I thought they were dead,” one told a group assembled inside the equipment bay of the Saegertown Volunteer Fire Department station following a press conference later in the day.
Ultimately, however, only one firefighter sustained minor injuries, according to Lawrence, while the vast majority transported to the hospital were taken for precautionary reasons.
Those transported included five Saegertown firefighters, one of whom was taken to UPMC Hamot in Erie, and one from Edinboro Volunteer Fire Department, plus seven Parker Lord employees, four of whom were seen for precautionary reasons, according to Lawrence.
The impact on the plant was far more significant.
“There was major damage to the facility,” a Parker Lord spokesman said in an emailed statement after the fire had been isolated.
Lawrence, who became a volunteer firefighter in 1968, has witnessed firsthand hundreds of responses to incidents of varying levels of seriousness at the plant over the decades.
“This was by far the worst,” he told The Meadville Tribune. “You never anticipate anything like this.”
Emergency response on Sunday began when Crawford County 911 received an automatic alarm from Parker Lord at 10:36 a.m. and sent a Saegertown crew to respond. Lawrence said such alarms occur when an automatic sprinkler in the plant is activated or when an employee pulls a fire alarm.
Before fire department crews arrived, a Parker Lord crew responded.
“Parker Lord Corp. has a very good on-site hazardous materials team,” Allen Clark, the county’s emergency management agency coordinator, said at an afternoon press conference. “They responded and secured what they could.”
A crew from the station located about a half-mile north of the Parker Lord plant arrived within minutes and found smoke showing from a building located in the central portion of the 44.6 acre campus, according to Lawrence.
“They responded just like they always do,” Lawrence said. “They were in there fighting the fire and they’d been there for a few minutes fighting the fire when there was an explosion.”
The interior attack lasted “until the situation escalated,” Chief B.J. Fleischer said. “From there on it has been an exterior operation.”
The explosion that propelled firefighters out of the structure also left much of the north-facing side of the building open to the elements, with large sections of metal siding crumpled on the ground nearby and smaller portions hanging from pipes exiting the side of another nearby structure. Damage from the blast also appeared evident in the crumpled overhead doors and corners split nearly from top to bottom of nearby structures.
The explosion occurred just after a second alarm was issued, according to Lawrence.
As a third alarm was issued and units from much of Crawford County and parts of southern Erie County responded to the blaze, four aerial engines led the attack, shooting streams of water down from where they were perched along multiple spots on the structure’s perimeter.
Following the explosion, authorities on the scene also called for an in-house, in-place evacuation at the plant, sounded the disaster siren, and began contacting residents in the area to stay indoors, according to Lawrence.
A precautionary shelter-in-place advisory was issued for areas within 3 miles of the plant, Clark said, “in case of any airborne contaminants.”
Given the nature of the work at the plant, which makes adhesives, coatings and specialty materials that are used in the automotive, aerospace, industrial, and oil and gas industries, Lawrence said the release of chemicals in emergencies is always a concern but speculated that any involved were likely incinerated in the initial explosion.
By about 1:33 p.m, the constant aerial attack tapered off and over the next hour crews on scene shifted to mop up activities. By 2:30, with the shelter-in-place advisory lifted, Fleischer said the fire was “under control” as firefighting crews worked with onsite maintenance crews to secure the site.
Lawrence added that the process of mopping up hot spots would continue “probably for most of the night.”
Numerous residents in the area felt the force of the blast, according to anecdotal reports at the fire station, with some calling to check if an earthquake had occurred.
The emergency response also affected the borough’s water supply.
“With the explosion, all the sprinklers went off” in the affected part of the plant, Lawrence said. “That caused most of the water in the borough’s water system to be diverted into the plant.”
Saegertown Borough officials also reported a related water main break at the north end of Euclid Avenue, about three-quarters of a mile north of the fire. The line was shut off, affecting residents on about two blocks, according to an announcement on the borough website. An update Sunday evening stated that the broken water line would not be repaired until this morning. Lawrence stated that the borough water supply was safe for other residents to continue using.
The fire response used water supplies from both the Pennsylvania Fish and Boat Commission’s French Creek access point off routes 6 and 19 just south of the borough and from Woodcock Creek near where it flows below Park Avenue, according to Fleischer. Thousands of feet of hose could be seen along roadsides around the plant as portions of routes 198, 6 and 19, Park Avenue and other roads remained closed to normal traffic through late Sunday afternoon.
Lawrence said the emergency response included numerous ambulances from both Crawford and Erie counties due to the Parker Lord plant’s proximity to the Crawford County Care Center and Crawford County jail, which are located about 1 mile southeast of the plant. Moving patients proved unnecessary; Lawrence said winds blowing the towering clouds of black smoke away from the Care Center and toward a wooded area south of the plant “actually worked in our favor.”
Also by Sunday afternoon, staff members from Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection were at the scene of the fire monitoring air quality conditions. Lawrence said air quality was not a concern at the time.
No information was available regarding possible causes of the fire at three short press briefings held over the course of the afternoon at Saegertown’s fire hall. No Parker Lord officials appeared at the briefings. Lawrence said company representatives were en route from the Cary, North Carolina, office.
A company spokesperson issued a statement at 4:34 p.m.
“We offer our sincere thanks to the local fire department, emergency management and first responders and wish all of those who were injured a speedy recovery,” the statement read in part. “Once the investigation of the cause of the fire and explosion is complete, we will learn from this incident and continue to place the safety of our team members and our communities as our highest priority.”
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