Pasco, Wash.-Wilbur Ellis officials described a sulfur fire Dec. 9 at their facility here as minor, causing only minimal damage and sending home most of the employees until the next day. “We didn’t allow any people back in there until the building aired out completely over night,” Jerry Voss, Wilbur Ellis regulatory technician, told Green Markets. Voss reported the cause as sparks from the metal bucket of a front-end loader scraping against a concrete wall, which produced enough friction to spark the sulfur dust. He explained that dust abatement can’t be used with the sulfur 90, which in this case is a micronutrient for making organic fertilizer. There were reports of nearby businesses being evacuated, but Voss said wind kept the fumes to the north and he didn’t believe anyone was at risk. Still, the Pasco firefighters put on bunker gear along with respirators as a precaution. “When we first got here and found out what it was we knew it was a strong irritant, and so everybody that got on scene as soon as they got out of the apparatus they were putting on masks,” Fire Capt. Pat Henrickson told the local press. Voss said this material produces a blue flame, similar to the way propane gas burns, that is difficult to detect. “It’s not toxic, just irritating,” he described, “but anytime you have smoke off any product it’s not something you want to be inhaling.” He said the damage was limited to the surface part of the product and the bin.
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