Posted on 10/09/2010 12:26:57 PM PDT by arkady_renko
As of about 10 a.m., authorities were asking residents in an area east of Route 40 and west Princeton for several miles to stay indoors and keep windows closed. At 9:20 a.m., police closed U.S. 6 and U. S. 34 between Wyanet and Route 40 in addition to the earlier closing of Route 40 from the intersection of U.S. 6/U.S. 34 to Interstate 80. A large number of spectators had flocked to the area, although some were watching from hilltops several miles away. Smoke from the fire in western Bureau County was clearly visible from Interstate 180 east of Princeton in central Bureau County.
"I live in Spring Valley and I could see the clouds and I got on the phone and called some of my farmer friends and they told me what was going on," Gale Neuhalfen said this morning
A Bureau County dispatcher said Union Pacific Railroad had been called to stop two trains scheduled to pass on tracks just to the west of the fire scene so the tracks could be closed.
Tanker trucks have been relaying water from the west at Sheffield and south at Buda to the fire’s location west of Route 40. On the west side of the fire, firefighters and a farmer with a disc were setting up a defensive perimeter to prevent the fire from spreading into dry fields and wooded areas. Firefighters on Route 40 were poised to prevent the fire from spreading to the grain bins and other facilities at the large Michlig Agricenter grain elevator on the east side of Route 40. Don King, owner of Michlig's area elevators, said firefighters set up a command center in the Michlig elevator across Route 40 from the fire for part of the morning. However, he said, when smoke stopped rising straight up from the fire and started settling nearer to the ground and toward the east, the command center was moved and Michlig's employees were advised to evacuate because of uncertainty about the safety of breathing smoke from the fire.
"They did tell us to get our people out, and we abandoned ship," King said at about 10:45 a.m. Saturday. Just a few of the fire departments responding to the blaze from western Bureau County and points west were Sheffield, Buda, Tiskilwa, Tampico, Manlius, Kewanee, Mineral, Annawan, Walnut, Wyanet, Princeton and Ohio. Other departments responding were from as far away as LaMoille, DePue and Seatonville on the east and Geneseo from the west.
I wonder what type and volume of chems are involved.
Euclid Chemical CoEuclid Chemical Cohttp://maps.google.com/?cid=17936095412365598289s=9802520696010388213Place page
15191 Il Highway 40
Sheffield, IL 61361-9219
(815) 454-2148
Not to mention upper 80’s temps here today.....
“Chemical fire, some evacuation near Sheffield (Illinois)”
How close was this to a voting machine storage facility?
All kidding aside, god bless our firefighters.
Had a call out to all firefighters that were on scene today to immediately go to hospital if they felt any abnormal symptoms.
Press conference coming today, I’ll try to post update.
They have three of these a week in China and it doesn’t make the AP newswire.
Impressive joint effort involved in fighting it, 15 different fire departments mentioned in the article.
This event is still going on - they were calling for pumpers and tankers this morning. The water used in fighting the fire has caused a small toxic lake.
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