Brutal heat sent one Ashtabula city firefighter to the hospital Monday, as several fire departments spent hours battling a major fire in a Norfolk Southern Railroad coal dock maintenance complex in the Ashtabula Harbor.
The firefighter, whose name was not made public, was treated at Ashtabula County Medical Center for probable heat exhaustion, said Ashtabula Fire Department Lt. Ron Pristera. He was released following treatment, Pristera added.
Pristera said the 90-degree heat made conditions "tough."
"It really slowed us down," he said.
That also is why so many surrounding departments were called for mutual aid, he noted.
"We rotated people in and out."
There were a total of 37 firefighters and three ambulance personnel on the scene from Ashtabula city, and Ashtabula, Kingsville and Saybrook townships, with six fire engines and two ladder trucks.
The fire was reported at 9:23 a.m. at the complex, along the west side of the inner harbor. Upon arrival, fire was showing through the roof of the building, and spreading "horizontally" to adjoining structures, the report said.
A problem with a dock-area hydrant caused a delay, but it was eventually solved when Ashtabula Township firefighters began pumping lake water for use by the hose companies.
One engine crew was evacuated to a safe area when heat from the expanding fire began to impinge on pressurized gas cylinders outside the buildings. Water service from the defective hydrant was re-established, and was used to cool the cylinders, the report said.
Other fire crews were assigned to protect the main electrical supply substation on the east side of the fire-involved buildings, along with the towering coal piles directly east of the buildings.
The last unit cleared the scene at 2:38 p.m., when the temperature was hovering in the lower 90s, even along the lakefront.
Rudy Husband, director of public relations in Norfolk Southern's Philadelphia office, said the fire is under investigation by the railroad company.
The cause and damage estimates for the three buildings involved are still being assessed, Husband said. Some employees were present when the fire started, he said.
There were no company injuries, and no fire reached the nearby coal piles.
Matt Zlocki, area supervisor for the Ohio Department of Natural Resources Division of Watercraft, said he spotted smoke in the Norfolk Southern complex across the river from his office shortly after 9:30 a.m.
Zlocki dispatched Officer Specialist Scott Stauffer out in one of the Ashtabula station's boats to patrol the inner harbor to make sure boaters stayed away from the potential danger.
Zlocki said there was some concern that burning coal dust could produce mercury vapor. But a southerly breeze kept the billowing black smoke away from adjacent residential neighborhoods.
"The wind is in our favor," Zlocki noted.
There also was "very limited" boating traffic Monday morning, he added.