‘They walked into a ticking time bomb’: Firefighter recalls Searsmont explosion
LIBERTY, Maine —
“They walked into a ticking time bomb.”
Liberty fireplace Chief Bill Gillespie and his household responded to Robbins Lumber Mill in Searsmont after a silo exploded on May 15.
“That’s two generations of my family that could have been wiped out had we been there 15 minutes sooner,” Gillespie mentioned. “I think about that all the time that we take risks.”
The report from the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) says the firefighters didn’t know the silo was designed to restrict oxygen or that its contents have been an explosion hazard. Because of what was contained in the silo, the report says making use of water to the silo brought on it to blow up.
“It’s a training material. It’s something for us to learn from,” Gillespie mentioned. “Unfortunately, the media looked at it as a headline.”
Gillespie says there’s extra to the story than what the headlines have proven. He says the firefighters had no concept the silo was disadvantaged of oxygen.
“That is a way that that fire has been addressed many times prior to that, and there was no additional training that was given to Searsmont for them to know that,” Gillespie mentioned.
The explosion killed three folks. Morrill firefighter Andrew Cross was killed on the scene, and Searsmont Assistant Fire Chief Wayne Woodbury died a few weeks after the explosion. Mill Co-owner Alden Robbins died from accidents in early July.
Gillespie mentioned firefighters are educated to place water on fireplace, including they’re working statewide to forestall one thing like that from occurring once more.
“I couldn’t imagine keeping a fire company there for six days to let something smolder out, when it’s attached to a building that holds 30,000 gallons of hazardous fuel, and attached to a building that had 3 million board feet of pine,” Gillespie mentioned. “Sitting there and let it burn, to me, wouldn’t have been the solution.”
NIOSH mentioned it investigated six firefighter deaths or accidents involving silo fires and explosions since 1985.