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

The incident was investigated by the Nebraska State Fire Marshal’s Office with the assistance of private investigators from EnTire’s insurance company. Investigators secured the services of a metallurgist to examine whether the heat patterns on the steel point plates of the silo indicated an outside or inside heat source. The cause of the fire and explosion remains under investigation.

The State Fire Marshal has determined that the probable cause was a faulty bearing in the stiff leg auger which carried the crumb rubber from the ground level to the top of the silos. The bearing overheated igniting the rubber debris around the sugar base. A contributing factor was the poor housekeeping practices. No definite cause of the explosion has been identified, although the State Fire Marshal has theorized that when the liquid nitrogen was introduced into the space above the crumb rubber it froze the top several inches of rubber, sealing the top of the silo. The continued application of nitrogen in to the silo built up pressure. As firefighters and plant personnel worked to remove the burning rubber a rupture in this seal led to an explosion.

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