A fire at Tiger-Sul Products LLC’s manufacturing facility in Atmore, Ala., on the morning of Jan. 6 destroyed a storage building and approximately 300 tons of sulfur, according to local media reports. The company said the building was unoccupied, and no injuries were reported.
Emergency responders were called to the scene at 9:25 a.m., and the blaze was extinguished with help from the Atmore Fire Department and crews from Poarch, Nokomis, Medstar, and Escambia County, Fla., according to the Atmore Advance. Air monitoring was performed within a one-mile radius of the blaze by Escambia County Emergency Management.
Highway 31 was reportedly shut down for a period, while nearby residents were advised to shelter in place. A golf course was also temporarily evacuated, the newspaper reported. In addition to fighting the fire, firefighters also worked to cool railcars that were located near the building. Firefighters cleared the scene at 3:45 p.m.
Tiger-Sul said full production operations at the facility were stopped for the day, but were scheduled to resume on Jan. 9. The company said cleanup operations are underway and an investigation into the cause is ongoing. The facility is situated on 38 acres in Atmore and produces sulfur bentonite-based fertilizer and sulfur micronutrients.
A major upgrade was completed at the plant in 2018 (GM May 18, 2018) after a lightning strike caused a fire in July 2017 (GM Aug. 4, 2017). At the time of the reopening, Tiger-Sul said the newly constructed production facility was just over 23,000 square feet in size, and the warehouse had a storage capacity of more than 2,000 tons.