The Iola Fire Department responded to a blaze at Mid-West Fertilizer early Wednesday morning in what was determined to be a total loss for the company.
The department took a call at 2:30 a.m. notifying them of a fire at 506 W. Lincoln. It took firefighters two hours to get the fire under control.
Deputy Fire Chief Jeremy Ellington said the cause of the fire is undetermined.
Ellington said the biggest concern was dealing with water runoff of the chemicals stored in the warehouse.
Shortly before noon Thursday, the city of Humboldt announced it would no longer treat water because chemicals from the fire had spilled into the Neosho River. It was not immediately clear how long the water plant would be shut down.
The city would feed the community with water in its towers.
“Please do not fill containers,” Humboldt officials announced in a press release. “Limit water use to essential use. The water in our water towers is safe but in limited supply.”
With the help of city crews and a few other agencies we were able to dam up some little tributaries. Insecticides, pesticides and fungicides all got into the runoff, Ellington said. We would also like to thank Doug Strickler, who used his own personal farm equipment for most of the day helping us dam those areas up. He was a big help to us.
Jared Albert, who serves as the location manager at Mid-West Fertilizer, said they will move their offices into another building at Iola Grain for the time being. Albert said they have no plans of moving their office from the current location.
As far as a dollar amount, we still havent figured that out yet. We lost our offices and all our tools. We were fortunate the fire stayed up front and didnt get near the fertilizers. Some of the chemicals we have are very explosive, Albert said.
The company lost most of its corn seed in the blaze, while other product was damaged by the water.
Firefighters remained at the scene until 3 p.m. fighting hot spots.
