MEC&F Expert Engineers : A building explosion during fire is under investigation in Colbert County, Alabama

Wednesday, September 28, 2016

A building explosion during fire is under investigation in Colbert County, Alabama







Structure fire explodes causing minor injuries to volunteer firefighters

Breken Terry Bterry@waaytv.com
Updated 23 hrs ago

At least three volunteer firefighters had to have medical treatment after a structure fire exploded in Colbert County on Monday night.

Officials say a little after six o'clock they arrived at a property on Pineywoods Road to find one building completely in flames.



LaGrange Volunteer Fire Department.

"Once we started spraying water at the back left corner there we had some type of explosion. Unsure what it was. A couple of officers got hurt but they were treated here on scene," said LaGrange Volunteer Fire Chief, Richard Nabors.

As a safety precaution a hazmat team came to the scene and decontaminated all of the firefighters because they don't know what chemicals were possibly on site.

Everyone is expected to be okay. No one was living on the property when it caught fire.

Nabors said this is part of their job but they are incredibly thankful no one was seriously injured. None of the firefighters had to be taken to the hospital.

White Oak Volunteer Fire Department, Spring Valley Fire Department, Colbert County Hazmat team, and Colbert County EMA were all on the scene.




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COLBERT COUNTY, AL (WAFF) -

A building explosion is under investigation in Colbert County.

It happened on Pineywoods Road in the LaGrange community. LaGrange Fire Chief Richard Nabors said the back left corner of the building exploded.

Everyone was treated on the scene Monday night and appears to doing fine.

Fire crews arrived when the structure was fully engulfed around 7 p.m. Nabors said there was no electricity to the structure and a strong acidic smell. The trailer next door also had a chair on fire in the middle of the home.

LaGrange, Spring Valley and White Oak volunteer fire departments responded along with Colbert County Hazmat and the Emergency Management Agency.

The chief and other first responders near the explosion had to undergo a decontamination process.

“I'm not quite sure what exactly blew up and as far as the safety goes everyone made it out alive, everyone got to go home last night and I was very thankful for that,” Nabors said.

It took crews four and half hours to put out the flames. The state fire marshal is still investigating the fire.