Officials: Air quality OK in Central City after fire

CENTRAL CITY - Officials with the Linn County Regional Hazardous Materials Response Team have given the all clear regarding air quality in Central City, where an oil filter recycling company was engulfed in flames Thursday.

Central City Fire Chief James O'Leary, who was on the scene Friday at Iowa Gold Distributing Environmental Services, 600 Iehl Road, off Highway 13, near Central City Road, relayed the information regarding air quality and said firefighters continue to monitor the debris for any hot spots.

O'Leary said crews were out Friday morning to put out a small blaze in the debris, caused by tanks still leaking oil.

'The oil got so hot that it's going to take a long time for it to cool off,” he said, adding, as long as there are hot spots, there could be flare-ups.

Fire officials on Thursday asked Central City residents to close their windows and doors, and turn off their furnaces, because of concerns over what chemicals could be in smoke.

Brad Coats, operations manager with Iowa Gold Distributing, said the company recycles oil filters for scrap metal and the building where the fire originated was mostly used to store and process oil absorbent rags.

'We didn't deal in any hazardous solvents,” Coats said. 'I know a lot of places said there was magnesium and all sorts of other weird things, but no, just waste oil.”

Bob Walters, owner of Iowa Gold Distribution, said he's not sure what started the fire, but is grateful for the firefighters' work.

'We're crippled, but we're not dead,” Walters said, adding he's also not sure of the extent of the damage. He said during the blaze, family members, friends and members of the community arrived on scene to help clear items, including computers and filing cabinets, out of the business' main building.

The cleanup won't begin until after the investigation concludes, Walters said.

'We do cleanups ourselves, so we know what to do,” Walters said, noting a third party is likely to be brought in to help with the effort. 'It's just happening to us now.”

Iowa Gold Distribution was founded in 1991 by Walters, and has 10 employees.

Fire and explosions

The fire was reported at about 8:30 a.m. Thursday and about half a dozen explosions occurred throughout the morning as firefighters tried to bring the fire under control.

The company's main building - where oil filter recycling takes place - appears to have survived the flames and, fortunately, no employees were working when the fire started, Coats said.

'Everybody is OK, no one got hurt,” he said.

O'Leary said the fire started in a storage building, but became so hot that several tanks burst before firefighters could control the blaze. The flames spread to a second building, used by the business to store oil, to the southeast of the first building, he said.

'With all the 55-gallon barrels they had in there, they just kept getting hotter and hotter, and they basically just blew up,” O'Leary said. 'As they started to blow, it got worse.”

Aside from Central City, several area fire departments responded to the blaze: Alburnett, Troy Mills, Cedar Rapids, Marion, Coggon, Prairieburg, Ryan, Center Point, Monroe Township, Springville and Anamosa. Linn County Sheriff's deputies and Rescue 57, along with the Iowa State Highway Patrol, Center Point Ambulance Service and Linn County HAZMAT also responded to the scene.

O'Leary said a volunteer firefighter from the Prairieburg Fire Department was hospitalized during the incident and treated for overexertion, but was not injured in the fire, as previously reported.

'Felt like War”

Korin and Skyler Manson, of Cedar Rapids, were visiting Skyler's father for Thanksgiving in the Senior Living Apartments at 555 Iehl St., across from the scene of the fire.

Skyler Manson, 25, said he saw white smoke around 7:30 a.m. Thursday.

'Skyler's dad got up do something, then he said, ‘Go move your suburban, there's a fire.' ” said Korin Manson, 26.

Korin Manson, who watched the fire from the apartment building, said she saw smoke pouring out from behind a garage door on the building. Once the garage door fell, flames started to appear.

Skyler Manson watched from the front porch of his father's apartment building, and said his friend - who served in the military overseas - said the explosions 'felt like war.”

'You could feel (the heat) plain as day,” Manson said.

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