Fire in a Tire Recycling Facility (Nebraska City, Nebraska - January 23 to February 3, 2001) » The Facility

The fire and explosion occurred at a facility owned and operated by EnTire Recycling, Incorporated. Founded in 1995, the corporation had a workforce of fifteen when the fire occurred and operated under a permit issued by the Nebraska Department of Environmental Quality as a scrap tire collector, processor, and hauler. EnTire recycled old tires into reusable rubber for products such as athletic tracks, artificial turf for sports stadiums, and playground covers.

The plant (Elevation 939 feet) was located on the eastern edge of community at 215 North First Street between the mainline of the Union Pacific Rail Road and the Missouri River (Elevation 917 feet), some 200 yards to the east. Until the 1960’s, the facility had served as a grain operation. The facility consisted of two 100 ft. x 300 ft. production buildings, an office, four silos that were 64 feet high and twenty-eight feet in diameter, a shorter corrugated silo (see diagrams and photos), and two 8,000-gallon liquid nitrogen tanks. The nitrogen tanks had been filled just prior to the incident according to a company spokesperson. The facility was on land owned by the Brock Grain Company of Brock, Nebraska.

Bias and steel belted tires were stored in the south building where they were shredded into chips (crumb rubber) of approximately two to four inches in diameter (see photo). The chips were then moved by conveyor into the silos for storage. In the north building, the chips were frozen by nitrogen and were ground into fine particles in a process that involved separating the metal particles from the rubber.

Each silo held approximately 100,000 shredded tires with an estimated weight of 1,000 tons. At the time of the fire, the northwest silo was one-half full, the northeast silo was three-quarters full, the southwest silo was completely full, and the southeast silo was full to the sixteen-foot level. The short, corrugated silo was empty.

The plant had been inspected by Nebraska State Fire Marshal’s Office on more than one occasion and had a history of poor housekeeping as well as a track record of poor equipment maintenance. There had previously been two fires at the site as well as two fires at another EnTire facility, also located in Nebraska City.

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