Smoke, ponding water still presenting challenges at Sinclair fire site

UPDATE: It's good news and bad news today about the stubborn fire at the old Sinclair site.

According to the Linn County Health Department, the pollution particulate levels have dropped in areas near the Sinclair site since the first days of the fire. That's the good news. The bad news is that the pollution has spread to a much wider area, and with the shift in winds, smoke is now drifting into different parts of the city.

Some of this is due to a major flare-up at the fire scene Thursday night. The heat forced the smoke much higher into the atmosphere, where winds spread it around to a wider area. Earlier this week, the particulate levels were 15 times the recommended levels. Today, levels are just three times the recommended levels.

Due to the smoke, Madison and Taylor schools closed their buildings to outside air on Thursday. With the wind shift, Grant Early Childhood and Wilson are also taking that precaution today. The school district says they have notified parents of children with known respiratory conditions and giving them the option to take their children out of school.

A new challenge is facing crews continuing to battle fire at the Sinclair site: ponding water. Officials estimate around 1 million gallons of water has been used at the former meatpacking plant, 1600 Third St. SE, since fire broke out early Tuesday morning. Friday morning, city workers were called in to address what was referred to as a “lake” on police and fire radio.

Fire Department spokesman Greg Buelow said the standing water is on the northeast corner of the property. At 8 a.m., streets department employees were using plows to move some of the water and channel it, he said. Buelow said pumps would be brought in later to push the water away from fire and demolition crews.

At 7 p.m. Thursday, fire crews were applying more than 2,000 gallons of water per minute to suppress a flare-up. Flames shot as high as 50 feet and additional resources were called in, Buelow said. He said fresh air got to the flames as demolition efforts continued, causing the fire to grow rapidly.

One of the Cedar Rapids Fire Department's main pumper trucks had a mechanical malfunction and has been replaced by a pumper truck from Hiawatha. District Chief Dave Brown told KCRG-TV9 that he is not sure if the city will need to call in more mutual aid from other departments to give a break to Cedar Rapids firefighters, but at this point they're OK, Brown said.

There is still no estimate on how long it'll take to get the fire under control. Brown says the main smoldering may now be from the bags of seed corn. It is possible that crews may need to remove the bags and spread out the corn to completely extinguish the fire.