By Karen Jacobs
Harvey County Independent – August 8, 2013
Submitted by Newz Group Clipping Service – August 28, 2013
It was easy to see the devastation from a fire last week at Green Energy Products in Sedgwick but what’s harder to see is what was right about the construction of the building, namely the firewalls.
Fire Chief Mark Sauerwein with Sedgwick Fire Department took The Independent out to the fire to show us how well the firewall worked in the bio-diesel plant. The firewall was a four-hour firewall with a two-hour door dividing the building in half. The half of the building containing the fire that reached temperatures of over 2,000 degrees, is nothing but a sea of melted metal, corn oil and ashes from what use to be.
But down the middle of the building is what is left of the firewall and on the other side of the four-hour firewall is an amazing sight. Plastic tanks untouched by the fire, tools, pumps, supplies, shrink-wrapped pallets, all untouched by the flames that devastated the other half of the building just a wall away.
Sauerwein pointed out the two-hour door that laid on the floor in a heap. He said the two-hour fire door lasted just about two hours. Most of the four-hour firewall is still intact.
Sauerwein also pointed out storage tanks just outside the building. He said during the fire they had fire crews pouring water onto those tanks to prevent them from exploding. The tanks are full of finished bio-diesel product and methanol that is used to make the bio-diesel.
None of the tanks were damaged despite their close proximity to the fire.
Sauerwein said fires are going to happen but in this case the safety measures that were put in place worked, making the situation much less of a tragedy than it could have been.
Sauerwein and Bernie Hoffman with Green Energy Products both said that cause of the fire is unknown. An investigation by a fire marshal ruled the fire as accidental and it is believed a faulty light socket led to the blaze. About 12 people were at work that day and everyone escaped the fire.
Hoffman said many rumors about the fire have been circulating. One rumor is that the fire started with an explosion. The explosion everyone was talking about was not the cause of the fire but was caused by the fire. A gas meter on the building exploded. The gas had been shut off to the building once the fire started but the meter blew up, forcing crews to turn off the gas out by the street.
The fire came at a time when Green Energy Products was about to hit the national spotlight. Hoffman said they had recently been interviewed by Ethanol Producers Magazine for the upcoming September issue.
Clean up has already started on the facility.
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