Workers will dismantle a silo at Advanced Environmental Recycling Technologies’s Lowell plant this morning to snuff out a fire that began smoldering a couple of weeks ago.
Plans were already in place to take the silo apart but were pushed up after pressure blew the top off the south silo Thursday morning, said Joe Brooks, company chief executive officer.
Advanced Environmental Recycling Technologies is a plastics recycling company.
“This morning oxygen somehow got into the silo and caused it to spontaneously combust,” Brooks said. “Sometimes hot weather can cause that.”
No one was injured in the blast, said Al Drinkwater, company senior vice president. About 14 workers were at the plant when the explosion occurred. All employees were accounted for after exiting the building, he said.
This is the second fire-related incident at an Advanced Environmental Recycling Technologies facility in the past eight days.
Matthew Chwirka died from injuries he suffered in a July 17 fire at the company’s Springdale plant. Two other workers were injured in the blaze.
The Occupational Safety and Health Administration is investigating the death. Juan Rodriguez, OSHA spokesman in Dallas, said the investigation is ongoing and will be finalized in the next six months. He was unsure if Thursday’s fire would have any impact on the investigation.
At A Glance
About AERT
Advanced Environmental Recycling Technologies manufactures building material from recycled plastic and waste wood fiber. The company has plants at 801 Jefferson St. in Springdale and 311 S. Lincoln St. in Lowell. It also operates a plastics recycling plant outside Watts, Okla.
The company is celebrating its 25th anniversary this year.
This is not the first silo explosion at a company facility. The top of a silo at the Springdale plant popped off after a dust explosion in February 2012.
The company also had silo explosions in Springdale in May 2008 and April 2007.
Source: Staff Report
Lowell Fire Department representatives were aware of the smoldering plastic at the plant before Thursday’s explosion. Mike Morris, fire chief, said he arrived a couple minutes before the explosion at 7:18 a.m. to check on a report of smoke.
Black smoke billowed into the air as the firefighters shot two pressurized streams of water into the silo all morning. Firefighters left the scene at 12:30 p.m. when the silo temperature dropped to a what they deemed a safe level.
The fire reignited at 3:50 p.m., prompting firefighters to return to the plant.
Brooks said Thursday that a fire truck and firefighter would remain on-site overnight to monitor the internal temperature of the silo. Firefighters sprayed water on the north silo late Thursday as a precaution.
Firefighters had trouble putting the fire out because it was so low in the silo. Brooks said they capped the silo’s bottom and flooded the tank.
The silo can hold more than 100,000 pounds of plastic and was about a quarter full at the time of the explosion, Drinkwater said.
“It’s a bad situation, but thank goodness no one got hurt,” Brooks said.
He said the silo’s top is a breakaway panel designed to pop off in case of an explosion.
“The safety systems worked the way they were supposed to,” he said.
Contractors will dismantle the silo and remove the melted plastic. Production was not impacted by the explosion because the silo was already disconnected in preparation for the tear down, Brooks said.
“The only way to get the fire out is to get the plastic on the ground and deal with it in small pieces,” Brooks said. He hoped the fire would be out by the end of the day. The contractors will then put the silo back together.
The explosion also affected the company’s neighbors.
Lincoln Street was blocked throughout the morning, and five buildings within a 300-meter radius of the plant were evacuated for several hours, said Lt. Paul Pillaro of the Lowell Police Department.
Nine employees at the U.S. Postal Office, across the street from the plant, were evacuated for two hours at 8:30 a.m., said Leisa Tolliver-Gay, customer relations employee. Postal carriers delivered mail on time to homes and business, but postal box users could not access their mail until the office re-opened.
A sign on the door of the Women, Infants and Children office next door to Advanced Environmental Recycling Technologies said the office was closed for the day due to the fire. Employees at Henderson Engineers Inc. and Helms Chiropractic on Lincoln Street said they had to evacuate their employees in the morning.
The company is publicly traded on the OTC Bulletin Board.
AERT (OTC BB: AERT) shares closed at 15 cents Thursday, down 2 cents, or 11.7 percent, from Wednesday. Stocks traded between 4 cents and 25 cents during the past 52 weeks.