FREMONT, Neb. (AP) — Two girls were waiting for a relative to finish work at a Nebraska biofuel plant when all three were killed in a massive explosion that shook the town, officials said Wednesday. The fire was still smoldering more than a day later and crews say they can't safely enter the building's unstable wreckage to recover the remains.
Fremont Mayor Joey Spellerberg said at a news conference that the children were at the Horizon Biofuels plant ahead of a doctor's appointment, and although he wasn't sure of their exact ages, he believed both were under age 12. Dodge County Sheriff Sgt. Brie Frank later confirmed the three were family.
The plant makes animal bedding and wood pellets for heating and smoking food, using tons of wood waste. Spellerberg said authorities believe Tuesday's blast was likely a wood dust explosion in the tall elevator tower.
“That’s really the only thing that makes sense,” Spellerberg said. He said Horizon Biofuels is cooperating “as far as I know.”
The company did not immediately respond to phone calls seeking comment.
The top of the elevator tower was torn apart, exposing a mangled concrete-and-rebar core. Metal siding on the building below was left crumpled and charred, while wisps of white smoke drifted into the air Wednesday despite rain overnight.
Spellerberg said fire crews were evaluating whether the whole facility might collapse, making it difficult to get inside as they battle the fire.
“It’s going to be very slow,” said Carl Nielsen of the city’s volunteer fire department. He said authorities do not have a timeline for when they expect to bring the bodies out.
“My heart hurts,” Spellerberg told reporters. “It’s a tragedy. We pray for all the families involved.”
The company has 10 employees, according to the Nebraska Manufacturing Extension Partnership.
A 2014 fire at the building had damaged the electrical system but left the structure intact, according to reporting by the Fremont Tribune. Significant accumulations of wood dust particles can be a fire and explosion hazard, according to the Occupational Safety and Health Administration.
Taylor Kirklin, who lives about a half mile (0.8 kilometers) from the building, said her whole house shook from the explosion at around noon, which was so loud she thought someone crashed a car into her family’s dog kennel business on the property.
“We were really unsure when the explosion happened which plant it was, because there are so many in that area,” she said.
Emily Anderson, who lives just blocks from the plant, said she heard “one really big boom” before police cars flooded in.
“There were just huge plumes of very, very black smoke,” Anderson said. “It was scary.”
Fremont, a city of about 27,000 and the sixth-largest in Nebraska, is 32 miles (52 kilometers) northwest of Omaha.
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FREMONT, Neb. (AP) — Two girls and an adult missing since a huge explosion tore through a Nebraska biofuels plant are confirmed dead, officials said Wednesday, as firefighters have battled smoke and flames smoldering in the wreckage for nearly a day.
“My heart hurts,” Fremont Mayor Joey Spellerberg said at a news conference. “It’s a tragedy. We pray for every person involved.”
Spellerberg said the two children were waiting for the employee to get off work so they could go to a doctor’s appointment. He wasn’t sure of their exact ages but said both were under age 12.
Photos taken after Tuesday’s blast show the plant’s tall tower torn off, exposing mangled metal and ripped siding. Debris littered the ground, and nearby residents say the blast shook their homes.
The fire has prevented crews from getting close enough to the Horizon Biofuels plant to search for the missing people inside, the mayor said.
“We had a fire going all night, even through the rain,” Spellerberg told radio station KFAB in Omaha earlier Wednesday.
“You have the feed mill area, you have the office area just under flames, basically it has not stopped,” he said.
Fremont Fire Chief Todd Bernt said first responders were up against “heavy smoke and a lot of flames” when they first arrived at the facility, which is surrounded by other manufacturing and food processing plants.
The plant makes animal bedding and wood pellets for heating and smoking food, using tons of wood waste, and Bernt said they believe the facility stores wood and some alcohol-based materials. A 2014 fire at the building had damaged the electrical system but left the structure intact, according to reporting by the Fremont Tribune.
Taylor Kirklin, who lives about a half mile (0.8 kilometers) from the building, said her whole house shook Tuesday. She said the explosion was so loud that she thought someone had crashed a car into her family’s dog kennel business on the property.
“I got up and looked outside and there was a huge plume of smoke,” she said. “We were really unsure when the explosion happened which plant it was, because there are so many in that area.”
Fremont, a city of about 27,000 and the sixth-largest in Nebraska, is 32 miles (52 kilometers) northwest of Omaha.
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OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — Firefighters in eastern Nebraska battled a fire for hours following an explosion Tuesday at a wood pellet manufacturing plant, but authorities said they have been unable to get close enough to search for three people believed to be missing.
The explosion happened at the Horizon Biofuels plant, which makes animal bedding and wood pellets for heating and smoking food, on the south end of Fremont, Nebraska.
Fremont Mayor Joey Spellerberg said three individuals were in the building, but “that’s all we can say at this point,” he said in a briefing Tuesday afternoon.
“We’re working with the state patrol as well as the state of Nebraska and other groups to assess the building and the structure of the building to where, again, we can be able to get in,” Spellerberg said.
Fremont Fire Chief Todd Bernt said first responders were up against “heavy smoke and a lot of flames” when they first arrived on scene. The first call reporting the explosion came in just before noon, according to Spellerberg.
Photos taken after the explosion show the top of the facility’s tall tower — marked by a distinctive sunbeam logo of the former owner, Golden Sun Feeds — torn off, exposing mangled metal and ripped siding. Debris littered the ground below.
The facility uses tons of wood waste to manufacture their wood fuel pellets. An overnight fire at the building in 2014 had damaged the electrical system but left the structure in tact, according to reporting by the Fremont Tribune. A fire captain said at the time that the building has a “cement structure on the outside and the metal frame is tied into that.”
Bernt said they believe the facility stores wood and some alcohol-based materials.
Dodge County Attorney Pamela Hopkins, who also serves as the county coroner, said law enforcement and first responders were busy securing the scene Tuesday afternoon and had not yet contacted her in her role as coroner. She added that she was hoping not to get that call.
“Right now, we’re focused on the safety of the community and getting the situation under control — keeping the scene secure,” Hopkins said. She declined to comment further.
Fremont, a city of about 27,000 and the sixth-largest in Nebraska, is located 32 miles (52 kilometers) northwest of Omaha, Nebraska. The site of the explosion is surrounded by other manufacturing and food processing plants.
Taylor Kirklin, who lives about a half mile (0.8 kilometers) from the building, said her whole house shook Tuesday. She said the explosion was so loud that she thought someone had driven into the lobby of her family’s dog kennel business on the property.
“I got up and looked outside and there was a huge plume of smoke,” she said. “We were really unsure when the explosion happened which plant it was because there are so many in that area.”