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County, state officials to discuss fire site cleanup

DEP, Fire Marshal reps to attend meeting Thursday

PARKERSBURG — The Wood County Commission will be meeting with state officials on Thursday regarding the cleanup of the IEI Plastics fire site and the status of other area sites where plastics are being stored.

Commissioners announced that representatives of the West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection and the West Virginia Fire Marshal’s Office will appear at 9:30 a.m. Thursday before the commission.

”They are sending representatives up to discuss the ongoing cleanup efforts at the site,” Commission President Blair Couch said.

The fire at the IEI warehouse on Camden Avenue, the former Ames shovel plant, occurred in the early morning of Oct. 21 and burned for more than a week, sending a thick black plume of smoke hundreds of feet into the air that was seen as far north as Cambridge, Ohio.

Fire departments from the region were involved in fighting the fire, including a private contractor hired by the county from Washington, Pa. The National Guard brought in foam to help extinguish the fire.

Gov. Jim Justice presented the commission with a check in December for $1,466,299.15 to cover the expenses of fighting the fire.

”There are also questions being raised to the commission by concerned citizens of other properties that may be involved in the area by the same ownership group (Surnaik Holdings of West Virginia),” Couch said. ”We know there are other properties owned by other ownership groups and we would like to have a general conversation about how storage facilities are regulated and what is available for that.”

The federal government has the “Right To Know Act” where the community has a right to know what is being stored there, Couch said.

”Our hope is we will have some more answers,” he said. ”We want to continue to do follow-up. It has been almost six months since the fire. I think it is important to continuously follow up with those entities.”

State officials remain in the area doing work on the site.

”We want them to answer our questions and give us an update,” Couch said.

Couch wants to know the status of officials looking at sprinkler systems at other plastic storage facilities in the county.

”Where are we on the cleanup, has the plan been approved, are the vendors doing their work, how often do they monitor,” Couch said. ”We want to know from the enforcement agency how they are managing this project.”

Commissioner Jimmy Colombo said these organizations can monitor what is happening, issue citations if needed and can answer people’s questions.

”It is important for us to have that connection with them,” he said.

Commissioner Bob Tebay said this report will give the county some assurances on what is happening, what has been done and to make sure something like this doesn’t happen again.

”We can’t afford another fire like the Ames (IEI) fire,” he said. ”There would be no way. If the state hadn’t saved us, we would be broke now.

Public health issues from the fire and smoke need to be addressed, he said.

”We need some assurance that we won’t have another fire,” Tebay said. ”We need to know someone is safeguarding the county for warehousing of plastics.”

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