Storage Facility Fire in New York Leaves $1.2M in Damages

A fire and several explosions early last Saturday morning destroyed a building used to store agricultural nutrients, pesticides and seeds at the Growmark FS facility in Gainesville, NY, local news organizations reported. The damages were estimated at $1.25 million.

Firefighters responded to the School Road site after the fire was called in at about 12:45 a.m. The 100’ by 56’ storage building was engulfed in flames when first responders arrived. Several explosions occurred shortly after firefighters came on scene that sent projectiles flying, according to coverage by ABC News affiliate WHAM. 

Because chemicals present in the storage building could have posed a risk to the surrounding area, firefighters decided to let the fire burn, officials told area media outlets. 

“When you come to that and put thousands and thousands of gallons on stuff like that, the runoff creates even more problems,” Wyoming County Fire and Emergency Management Acting Director Bill Streicher told the Batavia Daily News. “There was never any life safety issue, so we just let it burn.”

A representative from Growmark said in WHAM’s report that the tires on equipment exploded during the incident.

“The integrity of the bulk tanks was maintained and any liquid remaining in the burned facility was contained in the dike and on the load pads,” Growmark spokesperson Amy Gradford said when interviewed by the television news station. “We continue to work with state officials and our environmental remediation contractor on the clean-up of the site.”

No injuries were logged during the incident. The cause of the fire and explosions is still under investigation. 

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