Fire damages Fox Tank building

By Melinda L. Lucas

Dense black smoke spiraled over the northeast portion of Albany last Thursday afternoon, April 13 when a chemical fire heavily damaged one of the manufacturing buildings at Fox Tank Company.

The fire started in a mixing bay where a worker was preparing a coating for a tank, according to Albany Fire Chief Joel Viertel. The employee, who was wearing the required fire retardant gear under a Tyvek suit, started a paint rig to run a test, and a spark came out of a nearby electrical outlet, quickly igniting fumes along the floor.

The worker’s outer suit caught fire, but he was able to tear it off without injury, assisted by another employee who grabbed a fire extinguisher.

Ten members of the Albany Volunteer Fire Department responded to the 911 dispatch, aided by the Shackelford County department with a tanker, .

According to Viertel, who was out of town at the time, the firefighters were informed by Fox Tank employees about the specific chemicals in the building, and they began an suppression attempt.

However, the excessive heat burned through a high-voltage transmission line that fell on the ground near the burning structure, creating a hazard to the firefighters because of the water that was pooling nearby.

“They had to pull back until AEP arrived to kill the power, which was roughly an hour and a half after the fire started,” said Viertel. “After that, it took about 20 minutes to knock it down, although a lot of the chemicals had already burned by that time.”

There was no estimate of damages at press time.