Unusual protocol used on Houston blaze

CHICKASAW COUNTY, Miss. (WCBI)- A fire at a Chickasaw County manufacturer kept firefighters busy Wednesday night into Thursday.

The way fire crews and company employees responded to this fire was a little different.

Dark clouds of smoke hang over Chickasaw County over 12 hours after a fire began at a fertilizer plant.

Wednesday night, a storage facility at Houston’s Nutrien AG Solution plant caught fire.

But this is one fire that won’t be put out by local firefighters.

“Our company protocol, which is followed to the letter, states when a fertilizer facility catches on fire, we let it burn. If we put water on it then we run a risk of run-off,” said marketing manager Cole Gholston.

Location manager, Bart Brevil, said they have a mandatory training with the fire department about the facility’s safety procedures.

“They know that they didn’t have to call us and ask us whether to put water on this fire or not. They knew when they got here, not to put water on this fire because of previous training we do with them every year. But if they had put water on this, it would’ve magnified the situation and really given us a problem that we had to deal with and everybody else,” said Brevil.

Once the material burns itself out there will be some major clean up to do.

Workers will have to build a three foot berm around the perimeter to contain any run-off.

“We can’t say thank you enough to the first responders who were here right away, helped contain the fire, make sure everyone was safe. We’re gonna work through our State AG Department to figure out how we go forward and clean up what’s left. We’re gonna follow those protocol to the ‘T’ and make sure everything done right,” said Gholston.

After that work is done, company officials will decide whether or not to rebuild.

No injuries have been reported.

The cause of the fire is still under investigation.