Chief Expects Fire Loss at Postville, IA, Processing Plant to Be 'in the Millions'
Mary Sharp
The Gazette, Cedar Rapids, Iowa
(TNS)
POSTVILLE — Postville Fire Chief Jeff Bohr has slept 12 hours in the past three days as he and volunteer firefighters from 19 departments battled a multimillion dollar fire at Agri Star Meat & Poultry in Postville.
“I’m beat,” he said Thursday afternoon. “But I’m proud we were able to save 25 percent of the plant. … But It’s going to be devastating for a while.”
The fire — reported at 4 a.m. Tuesday — started in the plant’s laundry room and was accidental in nature, he said.
As of Thursday afternoon, the fire “is contained,” Bohr said, though firefighters are still on alert and being called in to put out flare-ups in the part of the plant that was saved.
About 600 people worked at the plant, where the owners are waiting to assess the damage and decide on the plant’s future.
Bohr, 56, said he worked at the kosher meat processing plant for 20 years after he graduated from high school in 1988, “so I know the layout, where the chemicals are kept.” He also knew where the flammable cardboard and materials — the “fuel load” — was located.
He estimated the loss “in the millions — the structure, the equipment and the stacks and stacks of expensive product stored” in the plant.
He estimated 3.5 million to 4 million gallons of water were used to contain the fire and that the town of 2,500 didn’t experience a water shortage during the height of the fire.
“Postville has a big water tower,” he said, citing the industry in the town. “It also has a 1-million-gallon storage tank of water underground.”
In addition, Norplex, the industrial laminator plant where Bohr works, has a large industrial cooling pond on its property. Firefighters pumped water from that pond into tankers “for 10 to 12 hours straight,” Bohr said, and public safety employees escorted the tankers through Postville to the fire while also providing traffic control.
The Agri Star fire is the largest in the city’s history, Bohr said, recalling two other major fires: the Dec. 20, 2003, fire that destroyed the Iowa Turkey Products plant and a 2009 fire that destroyed the Postville Bakery and five upstairs apartments on Oct. 17.
“The turkey plant never reopened,” he said, adding a hope that saving 25 percent of the Agri Star plant could be a factor figuring into the plant’s future.
Bohr said 30 of Postville’s 33 volunteer firefighters responded to the fire — “one is deployed and two were on vacation” — along with scores of others from 19 “mutual aid” volunteer departments. Also, Prairie du Chien, Decorah, Oelwein and Crisco sent aerial trucks to lift firefighters and hoses above the smoke and fire.
“I want to thank all the businesses in Postville and the surrounding communities that allowed volunteer firefighters to leave their jobs and fight this fire,” Bohr said. “It brings a tear to my eye. It’s all volunteer-based.”
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