Officials said they have some environmental concerns after a massive, 5-alarm fire at a Bridgeport, Connecticut, factory forced hundreds of neighbors to evacuate Thursday night. Both the air and water are being tested.
As a precaution, fishing along the Bridgeport shoreline from the Fairfield border to Pleasure Beach is banned and recreational and commercial fishing in allowed only in open water. The ban originally spanned from Norwalk to Milford, but has been lifted in the other towns. Shell fishing is banned from Fairfield to the Housatonic River.
All of this is in response to the fire that started around 6:30 p.m. on Thursday at 2102 Seaview Ave., a factory that houses the Rowayton Trading Company, which was storing around 1,000 50-gallon drums of products that include recycled industrial perfume products; and L.A. Barnaby and Sons.
Red foam was sent into the water, prompting the Coast Guard to fly a helicopter over the harbor and the shoreline this morning. They noticed "heavy product" in the Yellow Mill Channel as well as some at the head of the Pequonnock River, Commander Jonathan Theel of the Coast Guard said.
“We want people to understand that this material is in the water and that we need to determine if it harmful. So please don’t fish,” David Poynton, the emergency response coordinator for the DEEP, said in a statement. "At this time, it is believed that the material is some type of dye. The bans will remain in place “until we feel very confident that the water quality is OK.”
The fire was intense and Fire Chief Brian Rooney said there were several "tremendous" explosions.
United Illuminating was forced to cut power to around 1,400 homes in the area as around 80 firefighters battled the blaze.
"The fire continued to rage throughout the evening and had tremendous explosions. It seemed every five minutes we were getting plumes coming into the air. Huge heatwaves were coming toward the firefighters who held their ground," Rooney said.
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Roofs of around nine neighboring houses were on fire, so firefighters had that to contend with as well.
Deputy Fire Chief Dominick Carfi said it is a miracle no one lost a home, he said.
Now, efforts are focused on the environmental impact, helping homeowners fix damage to houses and helping companies find new locations so people can get back to work.
Rowayton Trading Co. and JWC Roofing and Siding, which employ about 50 people combined, were both destroyed.
Officials from the state Department of Energy and Environmental Protection said samples of the Yellow Mill River and the harbor show minute levels of material from the warehouse where the drums were stored.
Air quality tests indicate there is no immediate public health threat to the community, officials said, and the drinking water is safe.
Carfi mentioned that a private company provides the water supply and there is no well water in the area.
More samples and air quality tests will be done today.
One issue first responders faced was that Material Safety Data Sheets, which identify chemicals in the building, were not available. They were inside the burning building and the fire was raging too intensely to send crews in to get it.
Because of that, the Fairfield County hazmat team was called in and local officials reached out to the Coast Guard and EPA, because of concerns about the Yellow Mill River.
Bridgeport Public Safety spokesman Bill Kaempffer described the fire as a "major industrial blaze," which burned throughout the night. He said there were fireballs into the sky.
Two firefighters suffered minor injuries, but no one was seriously hurt, officials said. One injured an ankle and the other was taken to the hospital to be treated for heat exhaustion. The Red Cross provided first responders with food and water.
Around 400 residents who live in the area were evacuated to St. Ambrose Church on Boston Avenue, according to Red Cross spokesman Paul Shipman. As of Friday morning, the Red Cross continued to help 13 people affected by the fire.
Authorities are investigating to determine the cause of the blaze, but have not been allowed inside because of building collapses.
Until tests come back showing that it will be safe to fish, no shellfishing is allowed from Fairfield to the Housatonic River and there will also be no fishing in the harbor.
