GHENT, N.Y. -- A chemical fire at a plant that disposes of electrical equipment in this Columbia County town triggered a volley of explosions and sent thick black smoke into the night sky.
By Thursday afternoon, about 16 hours after it ignited, government officials said the inferno at TCI of New York's facility was "99 percent out" and initial tests showed air quality posed no health threats.
"The fire is virtually out, but they will be there for some time hitting hot spots," Jerome Hauer, state Commissioner of Homeland Security, said at a 2 p.m. news conference.
About 15 minutes after the fire started at 10:15 p.m. Wednesday, Tom and Pat Messina saw a steady stream of emergency vehicles barreling past their home on Old Post Road toward the plant about a half-mile away on Falls Industrial Park Road. They went to sleep and awoke about three hours later to see flames shooting into the air. Around 2 a.m., they heard a blast.
"It wasn't like an explosion like you would associate with a bomb or firecrackers. It was more of a whoosh," Tom Messina said Thursday morning as a column of thick black smoke was still visible out their living room window.
Dimitri Bassakalis, who lives with his wife, Barbara, on Falls Road about 1,000 feet from the plant, said he heard at least a dozen blasts. "It looked like a ball of fire that lit up the sky," he said.
What sparked the blaze in petroleum products at TCI remains under investigation, said Bill Black, the county emergency management director, at the news conference at his headquarters in Hudson.
The now destroyed facility contained 20,000 gallons of mineral oil, motor oil, two propane tanks and a drum with a small amount of PCBs, he said, noting that in 30 years of battling fires he had never seen one like this with 300-foot fireballs and intermittent explosions.
Officials said no traces of PCBs were found in the soot created by the fire. But a state laboratory had not completed testing for other chemicals, including dioxins, which are a highly toxic byproduct of burning PCBs, a fire retardant used in transformers.
"It appears that most of the PCBs burned up in the fire," said Dr. Gus Birkhead, deputy commissioner of the state Office of Public Health, said at the news conference.
"As far as air quality, any health risks should be at end," said Birkhead, noting that test results for dioxins are expected back Friday.
Hauer of Homeland Security said the state will be working closely with the federal Environmental Protection Agency. He said the challenges will include what to do with the residual chemicals and the site itself.
County Board of Supervisors Chairman Patrick Gratton declared a state of emergency shortly before 4 a.m. Thursday for the immediate area of the disaster, urging residents within a half-mile to leave their homes and those within a 15-mile radius to remain indoors, close their windows and turn off their air conditioners. Rensselaer County advised residents in Stephentown, Nassau and Schodack to stay inside as well.
Chatham Fire Department 2nd Assistant Chief Joe Cerami said that by the time his firefighters arrived just after midnight, most of the TCI building had collapsed. At 1:45 a.m. a truck-sized tank exploded, rocketing into the sky before the flaming metal crashed to Earth, he said. As his firefighters headed back to their station along Route 9H at 2 a.m., Cerami said, another explosion went off, lighting up the trees along the road.
TCI on its website says it disposes of PCBs in oil-filled transformers and other electrical equipment in what it says is an environmentally safe manner.
Old Post Road resident Mark Restifo, who worked at the plant for about a year beginning in 2000, said he was surprised it caught fire. He said safety was preached and there was never an open flame around. Smoking was prohibited.
"It was pretty safe," he said. "They were big on safety."
Black confirmed there had been a fire at the plant in January, but it was quickly contained.
Jennifer Hubbard, who lives in Philmont, about six miles away, told reporters the fire this time burned for 12 hours before she found out about it from a friend. She criticized what she called the "abject failure of government" to keep residents informed.
"There was a breakdown of communication, and it's a grievous issue," said Hubbard, saying that residents in Rensselaer and Berkshire counties received phone calls notifying them of the fire but that people in Columbia County did not.
Pat Messina said she has long had doubts about the plant.
"It was always a concern from the start," she said. "But the plants have to go somewhere."
Anyone experiencing eye irritation, choking, coughing or difficulty breathing should seek medical attention, officials said. The Columbia County Health Department can be contacted at 828-3358, and the county Emergency Management Office is issuing updates and on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/columbiacountyemergencymanagementoffice.
McClatchy-Tribune News Service
