La Crosse Tribune
CAMPBELL, Wis. — A fire that started on a wood chipper and boom crane ignited a massive pile of wood chips that fueled a fire early Tuesday on the southern tip of French Island.
The fire broke out about 1:30 a.m. at the Omaha Track tie-chipping facility on South Bainbridge Street and spread to a facility housing the large wood chip stack, said Assistant Chief Matthew Van Loon of the Campbell Fire Department. It consumed the storage unit and spread to adjacent railroad ties outside the building.
“When you have a pile of wood and railroad ties, it’s like a match in there,” Van Loon said.
About 40 firefighters from nine agencies responding under mutual aid agreements moved and cooled nearby fuel tanks and protected nearby structures before attacking the blaze.
“At one point there were flames a good 100 feet in the air,” Lt. Karl Goldbeck of the Onalaska Fire Department said.
Concerns about air quality led officials to issue a request that French Island residents to stay indoors for three hours. Crews spent Tuesday soaking and spreading the smoldering pile.
The facility processes railroad ties into co-generation fuel for the Xcel Energy power plant on French Island and has been operating since the early 1990s, Omaha Track Inc. President Terry Peterson said. It converted in 2008 to an electric grinding system to minimize fire risk.
“We are thankful that there were no injuries to any of our employees or to fire department personnel in containing this fire,” Peterson said.
The extent of the damage will make determining the cause of the fire difficult, Peterson said. The State Fire Marshal’s Office and fire investigators from the Omaha Track safety department are assisting the investigation.
The facility halted operations indefinitely. Xcel spokeswoman Liz Wolf Green said the fire would not affect operations at the French Island generator, which burns a mix of refuse, wood chips and tires.
Green said Xcel has other wood vendors, and the plant can run on 100 percent refuse if necessary.
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