On January 25th, EnTire’s insurance company agreed to bring in two outside
consultants from a commercial firefighting company to assess the situation. They arrived
on the afternoon of the 26th. The company did not, however, work for the EPA’s Emergency
Response and Removal contractor so procedural and contractual delays prevented
the company from taking any immediate action. Those issues were soon resolved and the
consultants from this company ordered their equipment and personnel to respond to the
incident.
Their personnel arrived on January 28th, and on January 29th firefighters
began the process of taking the remaining silos and debris apart. They removed
burning materials, spread them out, and extinguished the burning rubber. This continued
until January 31st. A track hoe was used to remove the east side of the south
production building in order to gain access to the interior contents. The raw, unburned
tires were removed from the south building and relocated elsewhere. Contractors built
berms to contain runoff, cut-up the silos, hauled the extinguished debris to cool down
areas and wet down the burning materials. Wreckers were used to pull steel debris
from pile.
On February 1, 2002 the task of extinguishing the fire was turned over to the
vendor and the Nebraska City fire department stood down The firm specializes in
shipboard and industrial fire control. At that point the fire department stood down.
The vendor brought the following equipment and personnel to the scene:
- One 2,500 gpm and one 3,000 gpm trailer mounted fire pumps
- 3,000 feet of five-inch hose
- 3,000 feet of three-inch hose
- 3,000 feet of 13/4-inch hose
- Five-inch monitor with a 2,000 gpm foam nozzle
- Six 21/2-inch monitors with foam nozzles
- Used 3,200 gallons of foam
- Eight firefighters
Personnel from the vendor essentially operated during daylight hours and shut
down their operations at dark. A fire watch was maintained throughout the night to
prevent a major rekindle or spread of burning materials. Freezing weather required the
pumps to be enclosed by a tarp and the use of a kerosene space heater to maintain the
flow of water and foam.
The fire was declared extinguished at 10:50 hours on February 3, some eleven
days, seven hours, and fifty-six minutes after the dispatch of the first alarm. The fire
took almost 272 hours to extinguish. According to Nebraska City utilities department,
11,390,000 gallons of water were used in the extinguishment effort. The
contractor also used 1,600 gallons of foam. Approximately, 3,280 tons of waste tire
crumb material was hauled to the Butler County Landfill in nearby David City,
Nebraska. The EPA and the Coast Guard estimate that cleanup costs reached $1.4
million.
The fire department estimates that Nebraska City spent 2,542 man hours in
their effort to contain the fire, while mutual aid agencies worked another 2,373 man
hours. Equipment hours totaled 1,314.
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