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Fire investigator seeks cause of blazes at CEMEX USA plant
Jul, 11 2012
(North Redlands) -- Fire investigator seeks cause of blazes at CEMEX USA plant in North Redlands.
There were no workers or other CEMEX USA personnel at the north Redlands site on Sunday, a spokeswoman for the company said Monday.
Redlands Fire personnel were on scene Monday at the CEMEX USA plant in north Redlands, where three fires Sunday destroyed two buildings.
There were no CEMEX USA workers or other CEMEX personnel at the north Redlands site on Sunday, a spokeswoman for the company said Monday.
"The operations there were not up and running at the time of the fire, and there were no personnel present," Sara Engdahl of CEMEX USA said in a phone interview Monday. "There were no injuries."
The cause of the fire at CEMEX's Redlands aggregate quarry yesterday remains under investigation at this time, Engdahl said in a statement.
"The fire affected two structures at the site, one was the facility scale house, the second was the main motor control and plant operational tower," Engdahl said.
The high temperature Sunday afternoon in the north Redlands area was around 99 degrees Fahrenheit, said National Weather Service meteorologist James Thomas.
Investigation of the three fires was expected to continue Monday at the CEMEX cement plant on Orange Street, Battalion Chief Scott MacDonald said Monday.
The fires were "isolated" from each other and an investigator was assigned to determine how they were connected, Battalion Chief Scott MacDonald said Monday morning.
The first fire, reported at 11:38 a.m. Sunday, burned about a half-acre of light vegetation under some power lines at Orange and Dishong Avenue, MacDonald said.
The second fire, reported at 12:28 p.m., was in the guard shack at the CEMEX plant, MacDonald said.
The third and largest fire was reported at 1:08 p.m. in the three-story CEMEX plant building that included administrative offices, MacDonald said.
The first two fires were contained in short order and the third fire was contained about 7 p.m. Sunday, MacDonald said.
As of Monday morning the fires were considered "isolated from each other," and no conclusions had been drawn about how they were connected, MacDonald said.
"They're potentially related but we don't know how," MacDonald said. "An investigator will be out there today."
CEMEX bills itself as "a global building materials company that provides high quality products and reliable service to customers and communities throughout the Americas, Europe, Africa, the Middle East, and Asia," according to the CEMEX USA website.
CEMEX's U.S. network includes 13 cement plants, 44 distribution terminals, more than 100 aggregate quarries, and more than 420 ready-mix concrete plants, according to CEMEX.
By: Guy McCarthy
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