Fire at Sinclair presents daunting challenge

On a scale of 1 to 10, fighting the fire at the vacant Sinclair meatpacking plant rates a 10, a top fire official said on Thursday.

“It's hard and frustrating,” Assistant Fire Chief Mark English said. “We can't get to it, we can't use typical firefighting methods. We're having to tear it apart piece by piece.”

English said he made the decision on Tuesday to let the fire burn, given that the structure was unsafe for firefighters to enter and that strong west-northwest winds made it impossible to get “to where we needed to be.”

“We really had no choice,” he said. “If the building had been sound, we would have gotten into the building and fought it more aggressively.”

The wind direction shifted to the south late Tuesday or early Wednesday, he said, allowing crews to start pouring water on the blaze. When the back portion of a building collapsed, firefighters tried using foam to smother the fire, but the foam systems froze up in the subzero temperatures.

Now, with demolition equipment knocking down walls, firefighters - usually a crew of six - is pouring water on the hot spots, “burrowing into the buildings,” he said.

The department estimates it's costing $750 to $1,000 an hour to fight the fire, but the department is avoiding overtime by using on-duty personnel.

That southerly wind on Wednesday blew smoke into the surrounding neighborhood and downtown, too, prompting a public health caution about being outdoors. Winds from the north are expected today, which will move the smoke away from the downtown.

English said it's impossible to estimate what percentage of the fire is out, but he hopes it's the majority of it. He also can't estimate how long the fire will smolder - “I'm afraid it's days.”

The department has two ladder trucks at the fire - one with a 100-foot ladder and a basket at the end, and another aerial truck with a 75-foot ladder. Another ladder truck remains at a station, in case it's needed elsewhere, and Marion and Hiawatha fire departments are on standby, should they be needed, English said.

Few flames are visible in the smoky fire, but it does appear some of what's burning is corn that was stored on pallets inside the building, he added.

What started the fire isn't known, though the department's arson investigator is on-site, English said.

“We're doing the best we can with the conditions we face,” he said. “Nobody wants it solved faster than the Cedar Rapids Fire Department. It was a very, very hard decision (to let it burn on Tuesday) for a group of aggressive firefighters.”

History of plant

1871 - T.M. Sinclair opens slaughter plant between today's Fourth and Fifth avenues SE. Moves it a short time later to present location at 1600 Third St. SE.

1913 - T.M. Sinclair Co. forced to sell to Sulzberger and Sons, keeps same name.

1935 - Plant renamed Wilson & Co., one of the “big four” in the meat industry.

1979 - Wilson drops beef slaughter and discontinues Cedar Rapids lamb slaughter.

1982 - Wilson Foods announces financial turnaround in company's first year as independent firm.

1984 - Keith Barnes buys Wilson Foods plants in Albert Lea, Minn., and Cedar Rapids, creating Farmstead Foods.

1990 - Farmstead Foods closes, resulting in the loss of 1,600 jobs.

1992 - Central States Warehousing buys the facility. It houses several businesses including Soil-Tec, Affordable Appliance, Bimm Ridder Sportswear, Linn Star Transfer, Penford Products, Cargill, Fiala Plumbing and Heating, Greg's Lawn Car, Farmer Masonry and Waste Water Systems.

2006 - The city of Cedar Rapids buys the property for $4 million. with Hall-Perrine Foundation contributing $2 million toward that cost.

2008 - Flooding in June forces remaining businesses to close. Building slated for demolition.

2009 - Fires in July and December decimate buildings.