BRUNSWICK, Ga. (AP) - Firefighters in coastal Georgia kept pumping water Monday on a vast warehouse filled with wood pellets that burst into flames overnight, producing a raging fire that burned for hours before crews brought it under control.
The blaze erupted Sunday night at the Port of Brunswick, about 70 miles (112 kilometers) south of Savannah. News outlets reported the warehouse is larger than a city block, and firefighters from several surrounding counties were called in to help as flames and smoke filled the sky in downtown Brunswick.
A large portion of the warehouse roof collapsed from the intense heat during the night. The warehouse, owned by the Canadian company Logistec Corp., was used to store wood pellets awaiting shipment to Europe to be burned to generate electricity.
“No one was injured and there is no risk to the neighboring homes,” Marie-Chantal Savoy, a Logistec vice president, said in a statement Monday. “We want to thank the Brunswick and neighboring fire departments that responded to the incident.”
The blaze was likely the result of spontaneous combustion from heat built up inside the huge pile of wood pellets, Glynn County Emergency Management director Alex Eaton told The Brunswick News.
It’s not the first time that has happened. The burned warehouse was built in 2016 to replace two buildings destroyed by a previous wood-pellet fire in July 2015.
“I heard all the sirens and I came to the front door and I looked out and go, `Oh lord, not again,” said Carolyn Mason, who lives near the warehouse.
Mason told WJAX-TV she was in her kitchen washing dishes when she heard a pair of loud booms from the warehouse. She said firefighters later came to her home to cut her gas line.
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