Building two of the New Pig Corporation in Tipton was destroyed by fire Halloween night.
\nJust before 10 p.m. the Tipton-Antis Volunteer Fire Company responded to what was just smoke billowing out of the facility. Shortly after that, there was an explosion that blew an overhead garage door off.
\n\u201cShortly after we got here the fire broke through the side wall,\u201d said Tipton-Anis Fire Chief Rob Harmon. \u201cIt broke through the overhead door and that is what got our trucks damaged.\u201d
\nOne truck from the Tipton-Antis Fire Department was completely destroyed and one was severely damaged. The destroyed truck was valued at $250,000.
\nFirefighters from four counties were on scene or providing support.
\nNew Pig Corporation offers the largest selection of contained absorbants in the world.
\nEquipment was brought in to start taking off the walls of the structure to give the firefighters a chance to extinguish the spots of the facility that were still burning.
\n\u201cWe\u2019ll be here all day,\u201d said Harmon. \u201cWe\u2019re going to start hitting all the hot spots and when we are done mopping up and the fire is completely out, we\u2019re going home to an empty fire hall.\u201d
\nAccording to on scene reports, within 20 minutes of the first response, there was an explosion and there were flames shooting out everywhere.
\nBetween 40 and 50 pieces of fire equipment were on scene.
\nOne firefighter from the Tipton-Antis Fire Department, Bob Dollar has been fighting fires for 31 years and the blaze last night was the worst he has ever seen.
\n\u201cThis is the worst by far,\u201d said Dollar. \u201cI\u2019ve been doing this for 31 years and I have never seen anything quite like this before. When we first got here, there was just a little smoke coming from the building. I came in on the third piece of equipment and when I got off of it, that is when the garage door blew out. We had flame and smoke that came out probably 50 feet straight out. At that point we had three guys inside. All three of them did get out. At that point, it became a completely defensive fire. Surround it and drown it.\u201d
\nGetting 200 firefighters from four counties working together as a cohesive unit is a chore.
\n\u201cIt was a fantastic effort,\u201d said Dollar. \u201cEverybody gave more than 150 percent effort. It was an incredible situation. People spend lifetimes on departments and never see anything like this. It was just incredible.\u201d
\nLosing two trucks in a fire hurts the ability of the Tipton-Antis Fire Department to serve its community, but it will still be there.
\n\u201cWe\u2019ve had three companies offer us equipment,\u201d said Harmon. \u201cOur trucks were insured. We\u2019ll be working on getting a truck in as soon as we can to be ready. We\u2019ll receive help from Bellwood and Tyrone in covering things in the short term.\u201d
\nIn spite of fighting a fire all night and losing their trucks, the firefighters are staying upbeat.
\n\u201cIt\u2019s going to be real tough tonight when we go back,\u201d said Dollar. \u201cWe\u2019re going back to an empty fire house, but we\u2019re still going to be having our Haunted House. We\u2019re going to pick up where we left off. We can\u2019t give in to this. It is something we have to do and make it work for us.\u201d
\nWhen asked to reflect on the total combined effort of every firefighter, Dollar paused for a moment.
\n\u201cI hope I never see anything like this again. The support has been incredible.\u201d
\nMany organizations pitched in to help at New Pig.
\nAs fire personnel battled the inferno at New Pig Corp. well into this early morning, a number of local organizations offered their assistance to emergency crews on the scene.
\nAccording to Dan Boyles, emergency services manager with the Blair County Chapter of the American Red Cross, a team of five ARC care workers were on scene from approximately 11 p.m. Halloween night to 5 a.m.
\n\u201cWe worked a pretty big operation through the night,\u201d said Boyles. \u201cOur unit, which is strictly for mass care, was providing food and beverages for the dozens of workers on that scene.\u201d
\nAccording to Boyles, the team served more than 200 hot dogs, 150 MTO sandwiches, more than 10 gallons of coffee, four gallons of hot chocolate and 12 dozen donuts to personnel working on scene.
\n\u201cRight now, we don\u2019t have people at the scene,\u201d said Boyles. \u201cBut we\u2019re standing by waiting for word that they need us again. When they do, we\u2019ll be there.\u201d
\nThe Salvation Army, Citadel Corps in Altoona, was on scene with its rolling canteen for about seven and a half hours.
\n\u201cWe were providing food services and offering assistance in any way that we could,\u201d said Major Dennis Smullen. \u201cWe offered hot beverages, soups and snacks – basically, helping to keep these guys at the top of their game.\u201d
\nAccording to Smullen, blankets and warm clothing was on stand-by should an emergency worker note a need for such items.
\nThe company, which employs more than 300 workers was founded in 1985. It manufactures spill-absorbant products for plant maintenance, liquid management and industrial safety.
\nThe overall loss at the New Pig warehouse is in the millions.
\nDemolition delayed
\nBlair County Judge Daniel Milliron on Monday issued an order to postpone the demolition of building two until January.
\nThe demolition of the remainder of the building was to begin Monday, but with Milliron\u2019s order was issued to allow Phillips Electronics the opportunity to have representatives on site to observe the demolition.
\nNew Pig claims that a light produced by Phillips exploded and ignited the fire.
\nNew Pig is back in full operation and has plans for constructing a new warehouse underway.
\nBack in business
\nThe Tipton-Antis Volunteer Fire Company had both of their trucks severely damaged in fighting the fire. One truck is back in full operation, the second is under repair. They have been using a truck on loan from the Port Matilda Volunteer Fire Company in the interim.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Building two of the New Pig Corporation in Tipton was destroyed by fire Halloween night. Just before 10 p.m. the Tipton-Antis Volunteer Fire Company responded to what was just smoke billowing out of the facility. Shortly after that, there was an explosion that blew an overhead garage door off. \u201cShortly after we got here the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-47585","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-local-news-in-the-tyrone-pennsylvania-area"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47585","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=47585"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47585\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=47585"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=47585"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tyronepa.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=47585"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}