Rockton,IL Chemical Plant Explosion & Fire 6/14/2021

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Jun 27, 2007
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Building is totally involved, flames 500+' into the air, numerous explosions. Fire building is 600 x 600. Mandatory 1 mile evacuations.
 
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Here's another video from one of the local news station showing some of the massive fireballs going into the air early on in the incident https://www.mystateline.com/news/local-news/crews-battling-fire-at-rockton-manufacturing-plant/

Looks like they aren't doing any good with the water and possibly causing more problems because of runoff.
Rockton Chief stated that they have stopped putting water on the fire because of runoff . . . potentially into a nearby river. From the video in Mike's original post, it would appear that the only water they are flowing is to set up a water curtain to protect a group of storage tanks . . . heaven only knows what is in them. They're planning on letting it burn itself out, and say that may take several days.
 
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Here's another video from one of the local news station showing some of the massive fireballs going into the air early on in the incident https://www.mystateline.com/news/local-news/crews-battling-fire-at-rockton-manufacturing-plant/

Looks like they aren't doing any good with the water and possibly causing more problems because of runoff.
In fact the chief mentioned they were going to shut down most offensive ops just because of that problem. The river involved is the Rock River which flows past Rockford.
 
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May 28, 2020
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Moved out of state several years ago but my hometown ~1 hour away sent an engine, I'll see if I can get some sort of rundown.
 
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Moved out of state several years ago but my hometown ~1 hour away sent an engine, I'll see if I can get some sort of rundown.
10PM towers from Arlington Hts, Elk Grove, Palatine, and 2 others on I-90, no lites/sirens.
 

Bulldog

Bulldog
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Here's a video from Tuesday afternoon of the ongoing firefighting efforts. Looks like they have one master stream in service just cooling things down. Must have some major pump capacity looking at the distance that stream is flowing!
 
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Here's a video from Tuesday afternoon of the ongoing firefighting efforts. Looks like they have one master stream in service just cooling things down. Must have some major pump capacity looking at the distance that stream is flowing!
Plans are to build a trench between the building and the body of water. An industrial firefighting team from Louisiana has been hired to put this bad boy out by using foam. Chief indicated it will take a week to burn itself out. Report from local TV channel.
 
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By the way this complex occupied 230,000 square feet. One mile mandatory evacuations are still in effect.
 
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