Fire at Kingsford Charcoal Plant

[Rain Man]

There's some inherent humor in a charcoal plant catching on fire. I chuckled at the bolded part, because you know they all brought steaks.

You'd think that the whole community would turn out for this and make it their citywide picnic.

http://www.therolladailynews.com/new...sford-Charcoal

Fire at Kingsford Charcoal
Second Belle charcoal plant fire in two weeks

By Shannon Beck
The Rolla Daily News
Posted Jul 27, 2012 @ 07:36 PM

Belle —
The Kingsford Charcoal plant on Maries County Road 314 just outside of Belle became the second charcoal plant to catch fire in Maries County in just two weeks. The blaze was reported early Friday morning.

No injuries have been reported, and plant officials anticipate welcoming the employees back to work this weekend.

“Believe it or not, as smoky as it looks, we were able to isolate the fire within minutes,” Plant manager Steve Miller said. “So it’s just this one area of the warehouse, so the rest of the plant we just shut down as a precaution so that everybody can focus on the fire and doing all the right things, and I don’t expect it to affect production.”

According to Miller, one of the 30 employees working in the plant around 5 a.m. Friday morning spotted the fire and quickly realized they needed to call 911.

“We do train with the fire department, so when they heard Kingsford was calling they knew we really needed help,” Miller said.

The plant didn’t just receive help from the Belle Fire Department.

Agencies from all over central Missouri including Rolla Fire and Rescue Department, Rolla Rural Fire Protection District, Doolittle Fire Protection District and Vichy Fire Department arrived with personnel and equipment to help keep the fire under control. Some departments as far away as Jefferson City also responded.

According to Rolla Fire and Rescue Department Training Coordinator Ron Smith, the large response was a result of his activation of the Statewide Regional Mutual Aid System. Smith is the coordinator of this system for our region.

He said the main reason local departments needed the extra help was the heat.

“The difficulty is they have to rehab people,” Smith said. “The temperature is so hot, and the work they are doing is so detailed that they are having to rehab a lot of people to send them back in.”

Fire crews worked effortlessly into the late afternoon hours as smoke and steam continued to rise from the valley the plant sits in.

Some crews began clearing the scene around 4 p.m.

Miller said the story that he will remember from the experience is not the fire.
“The headline is always, ‘Kingsford Charcoal plant catches fire,’” Miller said, “but really, the community response here has been tremendous.”

Miller said his employees worked alongside fire crews who were also provided support by community members who brought food and water to the thirsty fire crews.


Investigators are attempting to determine the cause of the fire, which started in the warehouse portion of the plant where stacks of finished and packaged charcoal are kept.

The Royal Oak Charcoal plant caught fire July 18. The Maries County Sheriff’s Department suspects foul play in that fire.


It is not known if investigators believe there is any connection between the two fires.

[Dave Lane]

Lump coal sale!

[KcMizzou]

I'll bet it smells delicious.

[Al Bundy]

Originally Posted by KcMizzou

I'll bet it smells delicious.

Yep, all that burning asbestos.

[BillSelfsTrophycase]

They built a giant sarcophagus to cover Chernobyl, Where's the giant grill to go over this site?


And the giant steaks