Chief: Pinova fire mutual aid response was excellent

Apr. 18—The Brunswick Fire Department remained on scene at Pinova on Monday and will likely stay through Tuesday to monitor for hotspots as environmental inspectors and fire investigators look into what caused a massive blaze Saturday at the wood resin manufacturing plant.

Brunswick Fire Chief Tim White said Monday his firefighters would remain at the facility until it is turned back over to Pinova.

"We certainly don't want another incident," White said. "That is a precautionary measure."

White said the investigation into what caused the fire is being conducted by the Georgia Fire Marshal's Office. As of Monday morning, he said there was not a clear picture of how the fire initially ignited.

"We're not exactly sure what happened at the moment," White said.

City firefighters responded to the fire the first time at around 7 a.m. Saturday at the plant, 2801 Cook St., as a large black plume of smoke that rose from the facility drifted over the marshes and out over St. Simons Island and the ocean, White said.

After knocking down the fire quickly and determining it was extinguished, they turned the scene back over to Pinova.

The fire began again around 2 p.m. the same day as Pinova personnel were on scene, White said. This time, it raged for several hours and prompted a mutual aid response that White said was impressive.

"It had us and Glynn County pretty well stretched out," White said. "Our guys did great. This was a dream for a mutual aid setup. We had every resource we could have ever asked for."

And they needed all the resources they received, he added.

Pinova produces a terpene resin from pine stumps that is used in numerous applications, including fragrances and food products like chewing gum, sports drinks and makeup. It also is used in tapes and road-paving materials, according to the company's website.

The plant employs around 230 people.

The oil byproduct that comes from producing the resin is highly flammable and was primarily what was burning on Saturday, White said.

As the fire consumed a building and a vehicle outside it, firefighters were most concerned with it spreading to tanks that contained other chemicals considered much more harmful, White said.

"The chemicals we were concerned about we were able to contain," he said.

The threat of those chemicals igniting was enough to prompt a precautionary shelter-in-place order for the area around the facility and for areas on St. Simons Island north of the airport, where smoke from the fire was blowing.

Later in the evening, after firefighters from around Southeast Georgia, Savannah and Jacksonville had been battling the blaze for hours, winds shifted and smoke began hanging over town. That is when an evacuation order was issued for areas around the plant, White said.

It was also about the time the Georgia Forestry Commission airdropped foam onto the fire. More airdrops were scheduled but only one was made because the Jacksonville Fire Department was able to apply the foam from the ground, White said.

"Law enforcement in this area was a huge help because they helped with traffic control and monitoring the neighborhoods around the plant," White said.

Seven monitors from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency were taking readings in the air to determine if chemical levels were harmful, but White said none of the monitors ever read above harmful levels.

By about 10 p.m. the fire had been contained and shelter-in-place and evacuation orders lifted.

In the end, only two minor injuries were reported by an out-of-town fire department, both of which were treated on scene by EMS.

White said the firefight would not have been successful without the healthy response from the region's fire departments and law enforcement.

"We're fortunate in this area to be close to two major departments and they definitely came to our aid," White said. "The fire community is good about that. When a department needs help, they respond."

The long-term impacts on Pinova were unclear on Monday.