Fires

A December explosion and fire that injured a dozen people and caused a small-scale evacuation in Marengo was caused when an “unknown mechanical failure” ignited flammable air vapor, the State Fire Marshal reported.

Bill Erb worked nearly every first responder job there is before becoming the Tiffin fire marshal and code enforcement officer — the department’s first full-time employee position — in early January.

Iowa Homeland Security will pay more than $600,000 to replace firefighting clothing and equipment damaged in a Dec. 8 explosion and fire in Marengo after the company whose plant exploded refused to pay.

A fatal fire in a Rodeway Inn in Cedar Rapids on Feb. 1 was caused by smoking materials that were in the room, according to the Cedar Rapids Fire Department.

Iowa will pay a contractor up to $834,000 to remove toxic “forever chemicals” from water in a 12-million-gallon basin holding runoff from a December explosion and fire in Marengo.

The Iowa Department of Natural Resources no longer has a deadline by which C6-Zero must clean up a Marengo explosion site, but is requiring the company to pay more than $400,000 for the work.

State and local regulators will be joined by C6-Zero representatives for a hearing Monday in Iowa County over whether a judge should force the company to comply with an emergency order to clean up the site of a Dec. 8 explosion and fire.

Firefighters forced entry into the home, found the fire in a kitchen area and extinguished it.

Cedar Rapids firefighter Jesse Lennox is the first Iowa firefighter to become a certified smoke diver. Smoke diver training is an elite week-long training program in Georgia that goes far above and beyond normal required training for firefighters.

In the seven months before the explosion and fire that injured 15 people and left an environmental mess, Jeff Boeyink -- a partner at Des Moines-based public relations and lobbying firm LS2group and Branstad’s chief of staff from 2010 to 2013 -- wrote to DNR leaders and Marengo officials at least 10 times on behalf of C6-Zero to answer questions, allay concerns and invite officials to tour the site, according to emails obtained by The Gazette.

Besides petroleum products that have leaked from a Marengo explosion site, state regulators also are worried about toxic chemicals from foam used to fight the Dec. 8 blaze.

The lawsuit, filed in Iowa County, asks a judge to grant a temporary and permanent injunction to force C6-Zero and owner Howard Brand III to comply with a Dec. 15 emergency order from the Iowa Department of Natural Resources, identify all chemicals at the site and allow the DNR access to the facility.