Blast forces Naperville plant evacuation
Firefighters use road salt to extinguish smoldering blaze
A chemical explosion at a Naperville metallurgy plant blew out an overhead garage door and sparked a fire that smoldered inside for hours Thursday afternoon.
Fire Department crews responded to the alarm for a structure fire around 12:15 p.m. at Odermath USA, at 1651 Frontenac Road.
(Danielle Gardner / Staff photographer)
(Danielle Gardner/Staff Photographer)
(Danielle Gardner/Staff Photographer)
• Google map: Location of warehouse
Naperville Fire Chief Mark Puknaitis said no one was injured in the incident. About a dozen employees were evacuated from the building.
"It certainly could have been a lot worse than what we have right now," Puknaitis said.
Odermath is one of the world's leading partners in the field of molten metal treatment technology for iron and steelworks, foundries and the non-ferrous industry, according to the company's Web site.
The warehouse is on Frontenac near Diehl Road, and eastbound Diehl Road traffic was down to one lane in the early afternoon. Naperville police also closed about a two-block perimeter around the building while firefighters got the fire under control.
The fire was contained in a conveyor area.
Crews could not put water on the fire because it would have caused an explosive, toxic reaction with the chemical involved, calcium chloride. Firefighters applied road salt to the fire to extinguish it.
Puknaitis said Thursday afternoon he did not know what caused the explosion.
An Odermath manager and employees declined to comment. But workers at neighboring businesses in the industrial park stood watching the emergency response.
Chris Coleman was working at WOW Cable across Frontenac Road when he heard a loud explosion.
"I looked over here and saw smoke coming out the top of the building," he said.
Angie Moreno, also a WOW employee, said the explosion sounded like thunder.
"We heard the boom," she said. "I thought it was something in our warehouse."
