Firefighters from the Waynesville Volunteer Fire Department in Brantley County spray down the huge pile of wood fuel pellets that was exposed when two warehouses burned Saturday afternoon at the Marine Ports Terminal at the Port of Brunswick. Firefighters were putting out smoldering spots Sunday as workers with heavy equipment began tearing at what’s left of the two destroyed warehouses.
A day after fire destroyed two warehouses at the Port of Brunswick, fire crews were in a mop-up mode but there was a lot to mop up.
Firefighters were soaking the two enormous piles of wood fuel pellets as workers used heavy equipment to tear away what was left of the ruined buildings.
The first of the two buildings, each holding more than 10,000 tons of the small fuel pellets, caught fire just after 1 p.m. and was quickly engulfed in flames as the fire spread to the adjacent warehouse.
A huge column of black smoke billowed into the sky as the asphalt shingles and wooden roof decking burned. Firefighters stopped its spread to a third warehouse.
Smoke had settled over much of Brunswick’s south end Saturday night but it had all lifted out by noon.
Logistec, a Canadian company, leases the two buildings at the Georgia Ports Authority’s Marine Ports Terminal.
Georgia Ports Authority spokesman Robert Morris said Sunday the cause of the fire was still unknown and there was no estimate of total damage in the loss of the buildings and the product. An estimate may be available Monday, Morris said.
The wood pellets are sold to markets in northern Europe. When the fire broke out, Logistec workers were loading wood pellets onto a ship and simultaneously off loading a shipment from rail cars into a warehouse.
