THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, May 21, 1995 TAG: 9505210057
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY STEVE STONE AND LARRY W. BROWN, STAFF WRITERS
DATELINE: NORFOLK LENGTH: Long : 121 lines
A spectacular blaze fed by thousands of drums of petroleum and chemicals tore through a large warehouse near downtown Saturday night, forcing a precautionary evacuation of some homes as a huge toxic cloud of smoke rolled over the city.
Nearly 100 firefighters and rescue personnel, backed by scores of police, were pressed into service from throughout South Hampton Roads. The fire was reported at 7:07 p.m. at Fine Petroleum Co. Inc. in the 2800 block of St. Julian Ave.
The area is a designated federal Superfund site because of a veritable witch's brew of chemicals that have been or are stored there.
No one was believed to have been in the two-story structure at the time of the fire, authorities said.
``I don't often get scared, but I was scared of this one,'' said Norfolk firefighter Fred Broccolo, 38, a 15-year veteran of the department. ``I know the history of this place.''
Broccolo and fellow members of Squad 1 were fueling their truck when the first alarm went out. They saw smoke rising nearby.
``It looked like a diesel truck had started up'' on fire, Broccolo said. ``The smoke was puffing up'' into the sky. But he knew better; he realized it was Fine Petroleum. ``We knew there was going to be some problems.''
When he arrived at the scene moments later, flames already were pouring out of the windows. There was an incessant series of muffled explosions - like popcorn in a microwave oven - as hundreds of 55-gallon drums of petroleum products burst and exploded into flames inside.
``I was scared being up close to the building because I didn't know how long it was going to be before there was a big one,'' Broccolo said of the explosions. It wasn't long.
As flames broke through the roof, the first of several huge fireballs erupted skyward, boiling into the smoke cloud.
``Most of us backed up a few feet,'' said Broccolo. The heat of the blaze ``was intense. You had to cover your face,'' he said.
``You could see projectiles going up'' with some of the blasts and ``at times there was stuff coming down and balls of flaming liquid'' falling around firefighters.
Moments after the first firefighters arrived, a second alarm was called in and a third followed close after. Minutes later, a fourth alarm was called and, finally, a general alarm - the department's highest alert status.
The wail of sirens was practically unbroken for two hours as more than 20 firetrucks backed up by rescue trucks, light trucks, ambulances and other equipment began rolling in from Norfolk, Chesapeake, Virginia Beach, Portsmouth and Norfolk International Airport.
With equipment from most of its stations at the fire, Norfolk also relied on neighboring cities and the Norfolk Naval Base Fire Department to send in more equipment to fill vacant stations.
The State Office of Emergency Services, the regional Hazardous Materials Team and the Coast Guard responded to monitor water runoff and smoke.
Early on, it became apparent that there was no hope of saving the structure; firefighters concentrated their efforts on keeping flames from spreading from the building. Two large fuel tanks are nearby, but neither burned.
As the blaze reached the west end of the building, flames first broke through narrow cracks in the metal siding. Within 10 minutes, the entire wall was glowing orange. And then it started sparkling, as if covered with twinkling white lights.
Finally - quietly, but dramatically - the end of the building sagged and caved in. With that, the occasional bursts of flames were replaced by a steadily burning ball of fire that rose about 50 feet into thick black smoke.
Shortly after 9 p.m., a steady jet of fire broke out of the wreckage, spiraling skyward not unlike a small tornado.
The flames were finally brought under control - although not fully doused - after an airport crash truck moved in and let loose with a high-pressure cannon shooting thousands of gallons of foam into the heart of the inferno.
It was unclear what chemicals and petroleum products were in the building, but in March 1993 the Environmental Protection Agency began a cleanup of the site, which was used then by Mariner Hi-Tech Paint Manufacturing as well as Fine Petroleum.
That move came a year after the EPA found leaky drums and soil contaminated by such hazardous substances as formaldehyde, sulfuric acid, copper and waste oil. The agency was concerned about possible contamination of groundwater and the Lafayette River.
Authorities were concerned that toxic smoke might settle onto neighborhoods with little warning. But with hardly a breeze in the air, the smoke cloud rose quickly from the site of the fire and then rolled northwest across the city.
``The weather is on our side,'' said Troy Lapetina, director of Emergency Services for Norfolk.
Officials erred on the side of caution, however. Police went through a dozen neighborhoods downwind of the fire and warned resident to keep their windows closed. And residents just east of the scene - in Roberts Village and Ballentine Place - were urged to leave. Some did.
A Virginia Beach police helicopter tracked the smoke cloud.
While dozens of firefighters appeared to be worn and exhausted, only two had to be taken from the scene for treatment.
Motorists in Virginia Beach and on the Peninsula said they could see the smoke.
Police officers held onlookers nearly 200 yards away at the south end of the warehouse.
Thomas Willey, 18, and Robert Subasavage, 14, watched firefighters battle the blaze with a crowd of about 100 people. Like many, Willey said, curiosity brought them out to the blaze.
``We saw all the flames from far away,'' said Subasavage, who lives near the Norfolk-Virginia Beach border. ``Everything was black clouds. It looked like a storm was approaching.''
Martha Rogers, who lives on Kansas Avenue, about a mile from the fire, was leaving her house to go shopping when she saw the smoke. At first, she said, she thought a house or school was on fire.
``I came out an followed the smoke,'' she said while watching the blaze. ``I'm just glad no one was hurt, at least I hope they're not.'' ILLUSTRATION: Color photo
GARY C. KNAPP
A general-alarm fire at a chemical-filled warehouse in Norfolk
Saturday spewed a huge toxic cloud of smoke.
Map
JOHN CORBITT/Staff
by CNB