ONEONTA - AL -
"It was fully involved," Oneonta City Manager Ed Lowe said.
One of the oldest businesses in Oneonta caught fire, Tuesday.
Lowe says it's unclear how the fire at Blount County Farmer's Co-Op started.
"There were some small explosions, but not major explosions," Lowe said. "[Our] first indication was it could have been small propane bottles."
The Blount County Farmer's Co-Op has been a staple in the city of Oneonta since 1934. Now, Lowe says one of the storage facilities is a complete loss. But he says the good news is that no one was injured.
The business has been known to support the local farm community. It's also been known as a storage place for a variety of fertilizers and pesticides. Taking that into consideration, Lowe says a one block by one-half-mile was blocked off, taking precaution for more possible explosions.
"The threats for explosion are over and obviously we're still monitoring the fire and keeping it cool," Lowe said.
Now the question becomes is there any chance for contamination?
"One of our main concerns is runoffs," Lowe said. "Because we have a lot of water in this one location."
As another precaution, emergency workers are damming up the waterways. They say they do not suspect anything has been contaminated, it's only for safe measures. But, they say, tests will have to be run on water samples to make sure.
