Cottage Grove Road Fire Case Study

On May 3, 1991, at 3:31 pm, the MFD responded to a fire at the Central Storage & Warehouse Company, 4309 Cottage Grove Road. The complex, a cold storage facility consisting of five buildings totaling nearly 500,000 square feet, contained approximately 50 million pounds of food products. Upon arrival to the scene flames were already shooting high into the sky and a second alarm was requested. The fire was originally limited to one building as firefighters attacked it from all sides. Just as ten firefighters and two apparatus were moved from the east side of the structure, the wall collapsed on their previous position. The fire, fueled by the stored butter, lard, and cheese, continued to gain momentum; water had little effect on it. The melted food products caused additional

5. At 11:00 pm the second building collapsed. At midnight, with the fire threatening the facility's anhydrous ammonia tanks, an evacuation of approximately 3,000 residents within a 1/2 mile radius was ordered. By 3:30 am the fire had been pushed back from the area of the ammonia tanks and the evacuation was changed to an advisory. At noon, the MFD requested mutual aid (fifty volunteers responded) from surrounding communities to give MFD firefighters a short break to recover. On May 5 at 10:00 am, the blaze was declared "under control", but continued to smolder under tons of rubble. By 6:00 pm the fire was down-graded to a "fire watch" with 12 firefighters on the scene to extinguish hot spots as construction crews cleared away wreckage. On May 7, fire/arson investigators were able to determine the fire was accidental and that the origin of the fire to be in and around a battery propelled forklift. On May 11, eight days after the start of the fire, the fire was declared "officially out". Losses were estimated at $7.5 million in property damages, $70 million in contents, and nearly $1 million in clean-up