Warehouse fire at port leaves lingering issues for residents

May 11—Smoke still rises from the mountainous soggy piles of wood pellets inside the remains of a state-of-the-art warehouse, which collapsed in an explosion of flames at the Port of Brunswick on May 3.

The port border fence that separates the burning warehouse from the nearby south end neighborhoods does not stop the smoke from wafting over. The acrid odor of smoke hangs through the neighborhood, sometimes accompanied by hazy smoke in light breezes.

Marie Cooper's backyard runs almost to the port's border fence, behind which Brunswick and Glynn County firefighters continue to spray down the destroyed building and thousands of tons of wood pellets.

She thought this was all behind them after the last big warehouse fire in July 2015. That fire consumed two smaller wood-frame and aluminum roof warehouses and the wood pellets contained within, sending acrid, thick smoke through the city's south end neighborhoods for weeks.

The Montreal-based stevedoring company Logistec stores the wood pellets at the East River facility. The wood pellets are shipped to European countries, which use them for biofuel in power plants.

The new 139,000-square-foot aluminum warehouse, which opened in October 2016, is bigger than the two previous warehouses combined. It featured automatic sprinklers and a vacuum system inside to clear potentially flammable dust particles.

After the fire in 2015, Cooper invested in extra insulation for her home. It has helped keep the smoke and the odor out of her house this time, but it's not helping her flowers and vegetables.

The plants need her green thumb, but Cooper is staying indoors until the smoke clears. She has breathing issues for which she seeks medical treatment.

"We don't have as much smoke in the house as before," she said, speaking with a visitor in her living room. "But I wish to goodness they would move those (wood pellet warehouses) somewhere else. I don't go outside. I planted vegetables earlier. They're dying. Same with the flowers I planted.

"After what it did in 2015, and now six years later it's still happening. This was supposed to be better, but maybe it's worse."

Brunswick Fire Chief Randy Mobley is awaiting a special crane to arrive from Tennessee, which he hopes will be some time this week. Firefighters cannot shoot water directly on the wood pellet piles because the aluminum roof has collapsed on top of most of it.

The new building has a capacity to hold 50,000 tons of wood pellets.

Mobley said the warehouse was completely full with wood pellets when the fire broke out.

The crane arriving from Tennessee will rip the crumpled pieces of roof off the warehouse, Mobley said. That way firefighters can start applying water more directly to the wood pellets and hopefully completely and more quickly extinguish fires inside the pile.

"We're waiting on that crane to pull the top off of the building," Mobley said. "We won't be able to fully extinguish the fires until the roof is off. But the Glynn County Fire Department is still with us on the scene, day and night, and we are very truly appreciative of their assistance."

The state fire marshal's office and the federal office of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives is assisting with the fire investigation. It is likely that spontaneous combustion occurred from heat generated by the mass accumulation of wood chips, firefighters speculate.

A man who lives across the street from Cooper on Newcastle, who asked not to be identified, has a good view of the smoky ruins from his front porch and showed a photo taken with his cellphone the night of the fire. It shows a brilliant flash of bright orange, the parameters of the warehouse outlined in flames.

"I thought hell was on fire that night," he said.

The smell of smoke follows him inside his home.

"My home stinks," he said. "It has been horrible all week. That place has been burning all week. They have not been good neighbors."