An unrelenting fire at an insulation warehouse west of downtown Fort Wayne started Sunday morning and burned into the night, sending up plumes of toxic, black smoke and creating concerns about possible environmental effects.
More than 40 firefighters responded to the blaze at Momper Insulation on West Main Street across from Lindenwood Cemetery. No one was inside the 34,000-square-foot warehouse at the time of the fire. Its cause was not immediately known.
The fire's billowing smoke was seen from miles away, and it attracted crowds of onlookers. Meanwhile, fire officials urged people to keep their distance.
"Because of the insulation, because of the chemicals that they use inside of the building, the smoke is toxic," Capt. Henry Willis said.
But fire officials also said evacuations were not necessary and that residents in the area should not worry about their respiratory health.
"As you can see, the smoke is going pretty much up and then dissipating, so it shouldn't be an issue," city fire Chief Pete Kelly said.
Kelly said a hazardous materials crew was monitoring the toxicity levels in the air and that the findings were not a cause for concern. Stacey Fleming, a fire department spokeswoman, said local emergency rooms had not seen a spike in respiratory-related visits.
On Sunday morning, a man driving by the warehouse at 2431 W. Main St. noticed smoke coming from a door. Matt Momper, the president of the insulation company, said he happened to be stopping by the warehouse when the passer-by discovered the smoke.
"We immediately called the fire department, and they immediately responded in force," Momper said.
Firefighters were dispatched at 11:34 a.m., and they arrived at the scene within five minutes. Willis said they initially entered the warehouse to tackle the blaze, but when it intensified, they exited the structure. A sidewall later collapsed, hitting a firefighter who was near the building, Willis said.
The firefighter was treated for injuries to his nose and hand and was released from the hospital, Kelly said. "Certainly nothing life threatening; he's in good condition," the chief said.
Fire crews used ladder trucks to spray water on the blaze from multiple sides. Crews were rotated throughout the day, so firefighters could rest. With so many resources committed to battling the warehouse blaze, fire departments in the surrounding area were put on standby in case they were needed to help with another emergency in the city, Kelly said.
Bernie Beier, Allen County's Homeland Security director, said a milky runoff from fighting the fire drained into Junk Ditch, a stream that flows behind the warehouse and eventually into the St. Marys River. To keep the contaminated runoff from spreading, city crews were trying to dam the stream with booms and sandbags, he said.
Momper said 90 percent of the warehouse contained fiberglass insulation and the rest was polyurethane-foam insulation kept in 55-gallon drums. He said more than 30 vehicles were also on the property.
Beier said it was too early to say specifically what chemicals were released into the air and water. He said a clear picture of the fire's environmental consequences won't be available for several days.
Authorities emphasized that the city's drinking-water supply, which comes from the St. Joseph River, was not at risk of contamination. But Beier added: "It's still important to monitor and do all that we can do to reduce the amount of pollutants going into the Junk Ditch," whose waters eventually flow into the St. Marys River, the Maumee River and Lake Erie.
Beier said city officials took samples of the stream water for testing. He said the Indiana Department of Natural Resources and the state Department of Environmental Management were coming to the scene to lend their expertise.
By 6 p.m., firefighters had stopped dumping water on the blaze and were conducting what Kelly described as a "controlled burn." "We're just trying to minimize the environmental impact. The more water we put on this, it's going to create more runoff," he said.
As the chief spoke, black smoke and fireballs could be seen over his shoulder, the result of a container of used oil that had caught fire.
Throughout the day, Beier said, local authorities were tracking the direction of the smoke with help from the National Weather Service. For much of the afternoon, the wind was pushing the smoke to the west.
As of Sunday evening, the fire had not spread to any neighboring buildings. And while the fire department did not require any evacuations, some residents on Main Street were told to leave their homes in the hours after the fire began.
Jenna Madden, 25, said an official knocked on her door about 12:45 p.m. and made her evacuate her home that sits a building away from the warehouse. "It doesn't look like it's jumping, so hopefully it'll stay over there," she said of the fire.
Madden stood behind police tape in the parking lot of the nearby VFW building watching the spiraling columns of smoke and talking on her cellphone. "Everybody's calling because they saw it on the news," she said.
Fire officials said the warehouse was a total loss, with two walls and much of the roof collapsed.
"It's sad, and it's devastating," Momper said.
Despite the loss, Momper said his company, which has more than 60 employees and three sites in Fort Wayne, plans to continue installing insulation today.
Momper said he had no idea what ignited the flames, but that he heard the fire started at the center of the warehouse. He said the building was in compliance with safety laws.
"Everything was working, you know. There wasn't, like, any glitches or anything like that in the warehouse or the trucks or anything," he said.
Kelly expected firefighters to be on the scene through the night. Main Street remained shut down from West Jefferson Boulevard to Leesburg Road.
