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Intense Sugar Fire Keeps Rescuers Out

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By BRUCE SMITH, The Associated Press

Published: February 12, 2008

PORT WENTWORTH, Ga. - A helicopter Monday dumped 250 gallons of river water onto a gutted sugar refinery where six workers died and two remain missing from an explosion that continued to burn more deeply than officials first suspected.
White smoke wafted from the disaster area after the drop, and the yellow helicopter headed back to the Savannah River, refilled its hopper and returned with another watery load in a scene repeated every two minutes.

One of the Imperial Sugar refinery's three 100-foot storage silos blew up late Thursday, with exploding sugar dust the likely culprit. Dozens of workers were injured. Fire crews couldn't search for the missing two workers because hot spots rendered areas of the plant dangerously unstable.
Search crews found the body of one of three missing workers Sunday before the search was called off at sunset.

Sand will be used on the fire if the water drops don't work, said Savannah Fire Department Capt. Matt Stanley.

Mounds of sugary sludge that poured out of two silos had solidified in places, making a sticky, concrete-like mixture that had to be cut with power tools.

The fire, burning at 4,000 degrees, spread deeper into the sugar silos than first imagined, complicating efforts to put it out, Port Wentworth Fire Chief Greg Long said.

"We initially thought only the top 3 or 4 feet of the product was on fire," he said.
Thermal imaging cameras were used to determine that the fire reaches down as much as 10 feet or 12 feet. Long said firefighters hope to cool and solidify the top layer, forming an oxygen barrier to smother the fire below.

Because the fire is so hot, officials are concerned the silos may collapse.

Sugar was piled about 55 feet high inside one silo. It was almost 80 feet down in the other, Long said. By early Monday afternoon, more than 22,000 gallons of water had been dumped on the silos.

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