May 18, 2009 9:30 am US/Central
Lemont Refinery Fire Takes Over 8 Hours To Control
Fire Sweeps Through Oxbow Midwest Calcining Refinery Sunday
LEMONT, Ill. (Sun-Times Media Wire) ―
It took fire crews more than eight hours to control an
extra-alarm blaze at an oil refinery in southwest suburban Lemont Sunday, but the refinery's business is not expected to be affected by the fire.
About 75 firefighters battled a blaze on an elevated conveyor belt that hung about 75 feet in the air Sunday at Oxbow Midwest Calcining, 12308 New Ave. in Lemont.
The fire was contained to an enclosed conveyor belt that takes coke, a mineral by-product from the refinery, Seneca Petroleum Co. Firefighters had to shoot water through vents and then eventually on top of a storage facility to get to the enclosed fire, said Battalion Chief Timothy Oslakovich of the Lemont Fire Protection District.
The elevated conveyor belt runs 40 to 50 feet off the ground and reaches higher near the storage bins which were about 80 feet tall, he said.
Firefighters fought the fire at about 90 feet.
"The fire was contained on the conveyor belt system," he said. "We didn't have easy access to put the fire out easily. It is insulated ... and the coke is pretty fine. ... It¹s like fine coal dust." At one point, firefighters were using 2,000 to 3,000 gallons of water per minute before stopping to move to another location, Oslakovich said.
"We had to pretty much spray water down holes on the top it to extinguish what fires we could," he said.
There were 12 fire departments and about 20 pieces of apparatus that assisted with the fire, including Romeoville, Bolingbrook and Northwest Homer. It took about nine hours to make sure the fire was out completely, he said. The department received a call around 8:45 a.m., and returned to the station around 6 p.m.
Oslakovich said he did not know the estimated cost of damage of the fire, but thought it would cost quite a bit. There are two sections of the conveyor belt that have buckled from the heat and the entire belt will have to be replaced.
(Source: Sun-Times Media Wire © Chicago Sun-Times 2009. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.)
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