CLEANUP BEGINS -- ARSENAL:  FIRE SITE WORK TO BE COMPLETE BY JANUARY

By Wilson Brown/THE COMMERCIAL STAFF
Thursday, September 22, 2005 10:29 AM CDT

Cleanup at the site of a warehouse fire at the Pine Bluff Arsenal began this week and could end by mid-January, Arsenal officials said Wednesday.

The Arsenal recently awarded a $2.3 million contract to PIKA International of Houston for the work, said Charlie Neel, the Arsenal's chief of environmental compliance.

About 30 percent of the cleanup work will be spent locally, especially asbestos removal, Neel said, with PIKA hiring out some of the work to local companies.

The June 6 fire destroyed a vintage warehouse on the south side of the Arsenal near the Arkansas River.

The fire also destroyed thousands of canisters of white phosphorus being stored in the warehouse.

"They've prepared some plans and found out ways to move the debris," Neel said at the fire site Wednesday. "One of their first steps is to move the debris by next week."

But the removal could prove to be dangerous and time consuming for the cleanup crews, since the white phosphorus is flammable and sensitive to air -- one reason Neel gave for the long period of time between the fire and the ensuing cleanup.

"When we start working with white phosphorus, safety is the main aspect," Neel said. "Equipment had to be designed."

White phosphorus catches fire when exposed to air or temperatures at or above 90 degrees Fahrenheit, Arsenal officials have said.

The Arsenal uses the chemical in explosives and in making smokescreens.

Workers will use full-face respirators and then impermeable suits with respirators as they start handling the debris, said Don Hansen, PIKA's asbestos supervisor.

For the past months, Arsenal workers have kept the exposed phosphorus from flaring up through a system of shower-like sprinklers that keeps the rubbish at an even temperature.

"We've had no smoke, no flare ups ...," said Thomas J. Braumuller, assistant fire chief for the Arsenal Fire Department.

"And the sprinklers are doing what they're designed to do."

The sprinkler system will also be running to protect PIKA crews as they walk through the site, Neel said.

Meanwhile, rubbish from the fire site will be separated with nonhazardous waste going to the Jefferson County Landfill and white phosphorus waste shipping to Von Roll Waste Technologies Industries at East Liverpool, Ohio, Neel said.

Arsenal and fire investigators blamed a leaking canister of white phosphorus for the 17-hour blaze and hot temperatures for the June 9 flare-up.

Oxidation caused a pinhole in one of the canisters, exposing it to oxygen in the atmosphere, Arsenal officials have said.

The canister heated up the surrounding canisters and then caught the warehouse's roof on fire, said Cheryl Avery, an Arsenal spokeswoman.

That fire sent white phosphorus into the air and over the river into northern parts of Jefferson County, causing a few residents to complain of itching skin and other mild symptoms from being exposed to the chemical.

So far, the Arsenal has no immediate plans for the former warehouse site besides cleanup and decontamination, Avery said.