Photos/Story Courtesy The Daily Herald
Dan Lund/The Daily Herald
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PROVO -- A block-long commercial building along 600 South was destroyed by a blaze that hurled fireballs hundreds of feet into the sky Friday afternoon.
Liberty Safe, 298 E. 600 South, burned to the ground in a four-alarm inferno so hot fire officials said they expect it to continue smoldering today.
The blaze, first reported at 11:35 a.m., sent a column of smoke 500 feet into the air.
Explosions from flammable materials in the building punctuated the towering plume of inky smoke with red fireballs, with some of the blasts launching shrapnel over firefighters' heads.
None of the seven workers who were at the building when the fire started were injured, and fire officials said no other injuries were reported. The plant was apparently closed for the day.
The explosions forced an evacuation of a 10-square-block area of businesses and homes around the blaze.
"This building is a total loss," Provo Fire Department Battalion Chief Mike Bledsoe said at a command post near the fire scene. No damage estimate was available.
Dan Lund/The Daily Herald
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As he spoke, flames and smoke continued pouring from the concrete-block structure where a huge roof had already collapsed.
"Our firefighters did quite well," the battalion chief said later.
All four Provo firehouses were emptied, and 10 off-duty firefighters were called into action to battle the biggest blaze in recent years. In addition, Orem and Springville firefighters were called in to back up Provo's stations.
When alarms were sounded in Provo firehouses, firefighter mechanics were finishing repairs on the department's only aerial platform. It can be lifted high over a fire, squirting a high-pressure stream of water down onto the blaze, and is especially useful on big-building fires.
Mechanics were able to finish the repairs and the platform was dispatched to the already-raging fire.
"We were reticent to enter the building," Bledsoe said, explaining it was just too dangerous. Firefighters were especially worried about eight tank cars filled with petroleum that were sitting on nearby railroad tracks.
Union Pacific engines were called to pull the cars away from the blaze.
An additional concern was a Christensen Oil petroleum storage center across 600 South.
"I would say it was 100 to 130 feet away from the fire," Bledsoe said.
Bledsoe said he checked heat levels at Christensen's and decided there was no danger of an explosion. Nevertheless, as a safety precaution, all petroleum tank trucks parked at Christensen's were quickly moved away from the fire.
These complicating conditions led firefighters to first evacuate residents and business employees from a block surrounding the blaze.
But at 12:26 p.m., the first of several large explosions rocked the area, launching an 8-foot-long piece of shrapnel over the heads of firefighters south toward the rail yard. The explosion also sent a 100-foot-high fireball into the sky.
Dan Lund/The Daily Herald
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Almost immediately the call went out to expand the evacuation zone to two blocks around the growing fire.
"I've got to hand it to that fire department, they are doing a good job," said Owen Christensen, of Christensen Oil.
While he talked, standing about two blocks away from the blaze, a fifth large explosion erupted behind him, sending another huge fireball blossoming into the air.
Jayson Lewis, a mechanic at Charlie's Machine Shop, about a block west of the fire on 600 South, said he didn't notice the fire until he heard engines arriving.
"At first the smoke wasn't as black as it now is," he said. "I know a guy who used to work in there, and there's a lot of lacquer and thinner used there."
Firefighters contacted Liberty Safe executives, who told them toxic substances in the burning building included acetylene and carbon dioxide gases, petroleum, acetone and the paints or lacquers used to decorate safes.
Bledsoe said the cause of the fire was not yet determined, but some workers had been making repairs to the building's roof and may have been using a welding torch.
But safe production won't stop.
"We actually have four manufacturing facilities in Utah County," said Steve Fransen, a stockholder in the safe-manufacturing company.
There is one other Provo plant, one in Springville and one in American Fork.
