WAVE 3 TV Louisville, KY | Review Finds Sprinklers Did Not Fuel Anderson Magnesium Fire

Review Finds Sprinklers Did Not Fuel Anderson Magnesium Fire

(ANDERSON, Ind., January 17th, 2005, 12:05 p.m.) -- Investigators found that broken pipes might have been the source of the water feeding a magnesium fire that prompted authorities to evacuate thousands of people from their homes, a city official said.

Connie Smith, a spokeswoman for Mayor Kevin Smith, said Monday that sprinklers at the Advanced Magnesium Alloys Corp. recycling plant did not go off in the area where the company had magnesium -- which flares up and explodes when in contact with water.

Smith said water from other parts of the building entered the area once the fire spread, through working sprinklers in other areas or from broken water pipes. She said the company correctly had disabled the sprinkler system in the magnesium storage area that investigators earlier believed was the water's source.

After magnesium in a scrap bin caught fire Friday evening, plant workers immediately tried to put it out with dry material, fire officials said.

But the water from other parts of the building helped fuel the burning magnesium, which by Friday evening forced the evacuation of about 5,000 residents in the vicinity because of worries about hazardous fumes.

Those residents were allowed to return home Saturday after the fire subsided, and the Environmental Protection Agency left Sunday after being satisfied with air quality in the city about 25 miles northeast of Indianapolis, Smith said.

Officials were uncertain how much of the 300,000 pounds of magnesium stored in the plant for recycling did not burn in the fire.

Smith said the company was working to continue collecting debris this week.

Investigators could know the cause of the fire by the end of the week, but Fire Chief J.R. Rosencrans said he did not believe it was intentional.

He said company officials had been cooperative, but that he was concerned about the source of the water.

"If it hadn't been for the water, we wouldn't be talking today," he said. "Somehow the water got involved with it and complicated the situation."

(Copyright 2005 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)