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| 20+ Departments Battle Blaze at Lynn Center Plant |
FIRST REPORTED 11:00am, UPDATED 4:36pm 9/24/10 A fire in rural Henry County a little more than 20 miles north of Galesburg resulted in what might be an unprecedented response -- and for good reason.
Roughly 20 crews from four counties, including Knox, were called to the Darling International plant on Route 81 at the edge of Lynn Center around 7am Friday -- after, Orion Fire Chief Larry Anderson says, first shift workers noticed some smoldering in a metal building on animal rendering plant's campus.
Anderson tells WGIL the reason for most of that response? The need for water, and a lot of it.
"Lynn Center is a nice little community, but they don't have any hydrants," Anderson said. "So, our biggest problem was going to be water. I started calling in anybody and everybody that I could to bring me a tanker and manpower."
Crews came from as far away as Knoxville and Abingdon, and the Illinois Quad Cities, to help put out the blaze.
The Illinois State Fire Marshall was called, though Anderson doesn't believe the fire to be suspicious, and likely had more to do with some potentially dry conditions inside the facility.
No one was hurt, and about 30 homes were voluntarily evacuated for a time, due to thick black smoke that at one point enveloped the area.
(Crews put out the blaze at the south end of the Darling International plant in Lynn Center Friday.)
(Fire crews survey the scene Friday morning.)
(A Knoxville Fire Department tanker truck represented one of 20 fire departments that had equipment and manpower respond to the scene. WGIL News Story and Photos by Will Stevenson.) |
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| 09 24 10 by Newsroom |
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