Bartow Fire Chief: Billowing smoke never posed health threat

BARTOW COUNTY, Ga. - Crews are on the scene of a chemical plant fire in Cartersville.

SKYFOX 5 flew over Chemical Product Corporation Warehouse around 11 a.m. as intense smoke and flames were seen billowing through the roof of the building on Old Mill Road.

App users: Click here to watch video report

Bartow County Fire Chief Craig Millsap said the 911 call came in from Chemical Production Corporation just after 9:30 Wednesday morning. Several units from Bartow and Cartersville fire departments responded to the scene uncertain what, if any, public health or environmental threats the smoke could pose.

"As a precautionary measure, we asked the surrounding schools and businesses to shelter in place until we could get our air monitoring equipment up in place to check. We were eventually able to resume normal operations in the area once we confirmed the air was safe," Chief Millsap told reporters shortly after the fire was extinguished.

Technical Director Jerry Cook said the plant processes a powder made of carbon, hydrogen and oxygen into a liquid used for paper production. He said it's possible an electric spark ignited the powder, as it did during a fire at the same plant several years ago.

"It's a small operation so there was one operator inside today. He heard a popping sound and saw a small bit of smoldering. He called our emergency response team, but the chemical smolders very quickly so the plant quickly filled up with smoke--forcing our guys to get out before they could extinguish the fire. That's when they called in the fire department," said Jerry Cook, who serves as the Corporation's technical director.

The chief said one Bartow firefighter suffered minor burns while battling the 2-alarm fire, but no one else was injured.