Inferno at Holland, Michigan Plant Leaves Local Onlookers in Awe
Crowds Gather Outside John Van Den Bosch Co. Gazing Up at Thick Smoke
DAVID JESSE
Courtesy Holland Sentinel, Michigan
As Jim Van Den Bosch watched flames engulf his family's 73-year-old pet food manufacturing and distributing business Monday, the third-generation co-owner couldn't begin to think about rebuilding the venerable Zeeland plant.
"It's too early to tell," Van Den Bosch said as smoke billowed above the plant. "It's heartbreaking for me, it really is. We've had other things set us back in the past, but nothing like this.
Sentinel/J.R. Valderas
Teenage spectators watch the fire of a feed mill on Washington St. from the CSX railroad tracks in Zeeland on Monday afternoon.
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"The part that started burning was the heart of our company, that's what we did best. We manufactured food."
The plant, with a warehouse on the east, a manufacturing center in the middle and a trucking bay on the west, began burning at about 3 p.m. Monday, Zeeland Fire Chief Bill Gruppen said. The fire was contained at about 6 p.m., although fire crews remained on the scene battling smaller hot spots all night long.
No one was seriously injured in the blaze, authorities said.
Gruppen, who had just completed a fire training session and was two blocks from the 509 E. Washington Ave. plant, did not immediately know the cause of the fire. Both Gruppen and Van Den Bosch said the fire started near a bird seed bagging machine in the center of the facility.
"When we arrived it was a cloud of smoke, and flames were shooting through the roof," Gruppen said. "The nature of the building -- it's one of your worst nightmares to have a fire in a feed mill.
"I'm surprised it didn't blow."
Sentinel/J.R. Valderas
Spectators watch the fire of a feed mill on Monday afternoon.
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Neither Gruppen nor Van Den Bosch had estimated damage amounts Monday night, but both deemed the business a total loss. The company manufactures a wide array of pet food, including bird seed mixtures, cat and dog food and rabbit pellets
Thick black and gray smoke dominated the Zeeland skyline and was visible from downtown Holland, Byron Center and well into Allegan County. Eight fire departments from Ottawa and Allegan counties battled the fire for more than nine hours Monday and into this morning. Firefighters used four ladder trucks trying to get a handle on the flames.
Plant employees frantically aided firefighters, pulling semi-trailers from the shipping bay, helping pull water hoses to the structure and later bringing drinks to refresh the firefighters. Several employees with soot-covered clothing also tossed food bags from a dock, hoping to save even a slice of the business.
Four-year plant employee Koo Lo said he was on break when the fire started, but that he went back in to help control the flames.
Sentinel/J.R. Valderas
Spectators from around the Zeeland area watch the fire of a feed mill on Washington St. in Zeeland on Monday afternoon.
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"The fire was way too big to even try to put out," he said. "We used every single fire extinguisher in the place, even the ones from the trucks. It was way too big. We were just trying to slow it down until the fire department got here."
Lo, who runs a bird bagging machine where the fire ignited, said when he left the building he "couldn't even see the ceiling."
An empty barrel fell and struck Lo on his way out, knocking him to the ground. Lo pointed to his burned fingertips and said he thinks his adrenaline allowed him to escape the building.
Lo said he didn't know what he would do if Van Den Bosch chose not to rebuild the facility.
Sentinel/Dan Irving
Employees of John A. Van Den Bosch Company rush to evacuate a tractor trailer from the burning feed mill on Monday afternoon.
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Van Den Bosch said employees were testing a redesigned area of the plant Monday. The improvements, which were part of a $1.3 million tax abatement the city of Zeeland approved last summer, included a new batching system for hands-free feed production
"We were just coming into our busy season," Van Den Bosch said. "It gets colder and people start feeding the birds more.
"There's almost 50 people we support here. I don't know what they're going to do. The best news I've had is that no one was hurt."
Gruppen, the Zeeland fire chief, said the flames was aided by a stiff westerly wind, but beyond that the fire was not as unpredictable as it could have been.
"It's a rather old building with a lot of wood and metal coverings, and there's a lot of shafts and open space that the fire can spread through," he said. "We're fortunate that it's more or less collapsing inside on itself."
During the first hour of intense flames, which kicked a searing heat to a safety perimeter hundreds of feet from the plant, one towering grain elevator collapsed. Excavating equipment was later brought in to tear down the structure.
"We tried to confine it to the middle, but it was so well advanced that we couldn't really get people inside without risking lives," Gruppen said. "Employees of the mill stayed inside past their time trying to fight it off.
"It's sorry to see this place in this condition. It went fast."
Gruppen said parts of the plant had caught fire before -- as recently as August 2000 -- but all incidents had been minor. However, the fire chief said he believes the plant once burned to the ground more than 50 years ago.
Gary Van Dyke, a 13-year veteran of making bird feed cakes, said the fire will impact the supply of food for vendors locally and nationwide.
"We ain't gonna have nothing for nobody," he said. "I can't believe this. It just happened so quick. I've never seen so much fire. I just ran like the dickens to get out of there as fast as I could."
Stacy Peerbolte, emergency services director for the American Red Cross of Ottawa County, said the agency served more than 250 meals to firefighters and employees during the blaze.
Peerbolte said the owners of the Community Restaurant donated hamburgers to feed those in need and that Canteen 800 and Zeeland Rescue provided Gatorade, water and fruit to replenish emergency workers.
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