Journal-Sentinal
A MAJOR FIRE AT THE PATRICK CUDAHY specialty meat packing plant just south of Milwaukee, Wisconsin, has just now been brought under control after burning all night.
WLUK-TV has some early fire video:
The fire began before 10 pm Sunday night when there were very few workers in the massive plant. The work floors are sprinklered, but the fire began in the crawl space between the ceiling and the roof, spreading unabated.
photo by Hubert Bartosz
The fire brought a 5-alarm response to the facility which has some structures dating back 128 years. While the FF’s were attempting to get to the blaze, the roof collapsed and destroyed the integrity of the sprinkler system.
WTMJ-TV has more:
The responding fire departments worked all through Sunday night and are still on the scene at noon on Monday. A release of ammonia gas into the atmosphere coupled with a fear of penetration into the ammonia tank storage area demanded a large evacuation of the surrounding urban neighborhood. The Cudahy Police also called for mutual-aid assistence bringing in 40 peace officers from around southern Wisconsin to aid in the evacuation and area security. Eventually the evacuation zone was at a 1-mile radius.
photo by Roman Zukowski
WTMJ-TV has extensive video coverge of the evacuation:
While the extent of fire damage was largely limited to the roof area, there apparently has been considerable smoke and water ancillary damage to the plant.
The operations are still ongoing and there is no word about what caused the fire yet. We will update this report when more information is released.
Sourced from several news and tv reports.
UPDATE, Tuesday morning: The fire is expected to burn until Wednesday. See the complete Firegeezer updated report HERE.
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