| The Gadsden Times
The call came in at 12:32 p.m. Sept. 30, 2019, summoning Attalla firefighters to a blaze at Gadsden Warehousing, a massive facility on Alabama Highway 77 along the railroad tracks near U.S. Highway 11.
Attalla firefighters would be on the scene, around the clock, for seven straight days, Chief Robert Dillard said, as the fire slowly consumed the material stored in the warehouse — paper products, plastics and more. They twice would return for rekindles, as the building smoldered and continued to burn for weeks.
More: Rebuilding at Gadsden Warehousing is underway, but owner said it’s been tough
They would be joined by firefighters and responders from across the state and even some from Georgia, as 118 agencies came together to battle the fire or support those who were working to that end in what would turn out to be the second largest fire in the state last year and the most devastating in Attalla’s history.
Dillard said more than 2,500 responders from fire departments in at least 17 counties were involved at the fire scene over the days they battled the blaze.
The building was massive, more than 200,000 square feet. Most employees were at lunch when the fire started, so firefighters were able to determine that everyone was accounted for quickly.
After a short time at the scene, the chief said he witnessed an eerie sight. One by one, all the roll-up doors around the warehouse fell, closing off the burning building as firefighters worked to contain the blaze to that structure.
“It was amazing,” Dillard said of the response the department got when it needed help. “Fire departments came out of nowhere.”
The Etowah County Sheriff’s Office lent its mobile command unit and the Gadsden/Etowah County Emergency Management Agency staffed it. Ira Phillips Petroleum had trucks going around the scene to fill or top off fire truck gas tanks, the chief said.
Volunteer fire departments from Etowah and surrounding counties responded.
“Gadsden, Rainbow City, and Southside (fire departments) were there early and there for days,” he recalled.
Dillard said firefighters depended on a method often used by volunteer departments to battle the blaze when they lost water supply at the scene.
Initially, firefighters didn’t know what happened, they just knew something was wrong. Dillard said the St. Clair Fire Chief discovered the problem — a broken eight-inch water main that interrupted the flow of water to the sprinklers that might have helped tamp down the fire inside the building and to hydrants supplying firefighters on the outside.
“He spotted a crater,” dug by the water rushing out of that broken main, Dillard said. After its discovery, he said, the Attalla Water Board worked to repair it quickly.
Trucks burned up the road hauling water from hydrants along Alabama Highway 77 — even tapping some hydrants in Gadsden — to get water to ferry to the fire scene throughout the first night of the fire.
Shuttling water was not the only improvisation. Dillard said they pulled water out of Wills Creek to spray onto the building and Tim Ramsey of the Gadsden Fire Department recalled running a hose under the train tracks to bring more water to the blaze.
GECEMA Emergency Management Specialist Josh Tanner said the decision made when the water supply failed was critical. Firefighters quickly switched to shuttling water to the fire, using tankers from many of those volunteer fire departments that answered the call or help.
Water shuttling is an area of expertise for many volunteer departments, who often fight fires in rural areas with fewer available fire hydrants to supply water.
Tanner said making that decision to improvise a water supply was a smart one — crucial to the initial attack on the fire.
In addition to water supply problems, the area was sweltering at the end of September, early October 2019, with temperatures in the high 90s and heat indexes some days reaching 100 degrees. For firefighters in heavy turnouts and safety gear, it made a hard job harder.
“More than 35 firefighters needed emergency fluids – hydration by IV – to get back into the fight,” Dillard said.
Tanner said there was a rehab section located very near incident command.
Amazingly, there only was one injury: an Attalla firefighter had to be treated for blistering on his foot, the chief said.
Dillard said Director Deborah Gaither’s GECEMA staff played a crucial role — they put out the call for help from other counties and brought badly needed assistance.
“We reached out to all 67 counties,” Tanner said.
All Etowah County fire departments, city departments and rural volunteer agencies responded, making it possible to have multiple aerial trucks spraying water across the burning building, and departments from as far away as Lee County responded.
Tanner described the fire as a “generational” incident – the kind that needed the massive response.
“It takes a team,” he said, “especially in our line of work. If you don’t have that team mindset, you’re not going to be successful.”
With the ECSO’s mobile command center, GECEMA’s staff basically was able to move its emergency operation center to the scene – something that helped staffers deal with other duties while staying on hand for the fire response.
Dillard and Attalla Mayor Larry Means said plenty of local residents and businesses joined the team. Restaurants supplied food, businesses and individuals donated water and other supplies.
Most of the City of Attalla’s departments were involve in some way, Means said. He said when the numbers were added up, 1,600 hours of overtime when into the fire fight, costing the city about $30,000.
Dillard said after the initial response, the fire fight involved plowing trails through the burned debris for access. If you passed the scene during that process, it looked like a model of a city, with streets running through it, if the buildings were made a burned rubble.
The heavy smoke from the fire could be seen far away and its affects locally were felt, as people with breathing issues were urged to stay inside.
“It was very dangerous,” Dillard said, with the hydrocarbons released by the fire.
In December, he said, he sent every firefighter to Occupational Health for a baseline chest x-ray.
For both the chief and the mayor, the take-away from the experience seems to be not just the heat and the hardship, but the help – the number of fire departments and other response agencies that came and the distance some of them came to assist.
Both Means and Dillard expressed their appreciation to the community that kept them supplied during the days at the scene.
“There was an endless supply of food,” Dilliard said.
“Etowah County did what Etowah County does best,” Tanner said, “when we’re down, when we’re on the ropes, looking like we’re not going to be able to pull through.
“Etowah County circles the wagons the best of any county I’ve worked in.”
Recent Comments