Friday night’s fire at Agri Star kosher slaughterhouse in Postville, Iowa burned for almost five hours before the Postville Fire Department was notified.
Agri Star Fire Could Have Been Much Worse, First Responders Say
Shmarya Rosenberg • FailedMessiah.com
Friday night’s fire at Agri Star kosher slaughterhouse in Postville, Iowa burned for almost five hours before the Postville Fire Department was notified, the Midwest News reported.
The Postville Fire Department was called Saturday morning at 2:41 a.m. but security camera footage reportedly shows the fire was already burning by 10:00 p.m. Friday night. The fire’s progress was reportedly retarded by overhead PVC water pipes that melted or broke.
If those water pipes had remained intact or been empty, it is likely the entire 350,000 square foot three floor building would have been gutted.
The Postville Fire Department was reportedly joined in fighting the fire by the Castalia, Luana, Frankville and Monona fire departments along with Decorah’s aerial firefighting unit.
The fire was reportedly under control by approximately 4:30 am CST Saturday.
Agri Star’s security staff reportedly notified the plant’s maintenance supervisor at 2:25 am that there was a problem on the lower level.
He arrived and called 911 at 2:41 am.
When the Postville Fire Department arrived, thick black smoke was already billowing out of the building’s lower level.
The fire – which is reportedly thought to be accidental – apparently started in a dryer which was left running unattended in the reportedly unoccupied building.
There is no word so far on why the plant's fire alarms and smoke detectors did not go off – or if the plant has any fire alarms and smoke detectors at all.
There is also reportedly no publicly available damage assessment at this time.
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