Sludge Watch ==> Florida - Sewage Sludge 'Fertilizer' goes into Spontaneous Combustion

[Maureen Reilly]

Sludgewatch Admin:

Dried sewage sludge burns down a plant after spontaneous combustion.
Well I'll be darned.
This happens frequently.  Goes on all the time at plants like this.

I wonder how these guys get insurance for such facilities.

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Tuesday, October 17, 2006

Fire Damages Part of Fertilizer Plant

By Dana Willhoit
The Ledger



Lakeland firefighters spray water onto remaining hot spots at the former 
Florida Favorite Fertilizers building on West Olive Street in Lakeland on 
Monday. The building was damaged when fertilizer ingredients spontaneously 
caught fire. (ERNST PETERS/The Ledger)



LAKELAND -- Lakeland firefighters spent an hour and a half Monday morning 
extinguishing a five-ton pile of flaming fertilizer at a former Superfund 
site on Olive Street.

The fire was reported at 6:37 a.m. and was under control by 8:08 a.m., Fire 
Department spokeswoman Cheryl Edwards said. The fire damaged a building at 
the facility at 1607 Olive St. and caused an estimated $200,000 in damage.

There was no risk of hazardous chemicals being released into the air and a 
hazardous materials team was not called in, Edwards said. The fire started 
when treated sewage sludge processed for fertilizer overheated and began to 
smoke, then caught fire, Edwards said.

The company where the fire took place was formerly called Florida Favorite 
Fertilizers. It was purchased by Wedgworth's Inc. of Belle Glade on Aug. 1, 
according to company comptroller Joey Miller.

Miller said the company, which employs about 10 people, should be 
operational again by the end of the week.

"It looks worse than it is," Miller said Monday afternoon. "It's just a lot 
of cosmetic damage."

The company makes custom blends of fertilizer, which it sends out to 
growers, Miller said. The material that caught on fire Monday was processed 
biosolids, which is the solid part of treated sewage sludge, according to 
the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Web site.

"That material will get hot," Miller said. "When that happens, it'll get a 
smell off it." As soon as that happens, workers spread it out to prevent it 
from overheating, Miller said. They did that on Monday morning, but the 
biosolids began smoking so they called the Fire Department.

Firefighters were at the plant when the biosolids burst into flames, Miller 
said.



Lakeland Fire Department personnel cool off the roof of the former Florida 
Favorite Fertilizer plant on West Olive Street on Monday after a fire 
started spontaneously in a pile of treated sewage sludge. (ERNST PETERS/The 
Ledger)



Florida Favorite Fertilizer, which opened in 1921 and has operated under 
various owners, was placed on the EPA's list of Superfund sites in 2000 
because of contamination from its site and from the adjacent Landia Chemical 
Co.

EPA tests in 1999 found high concentrations of lead, arsenic and toxaphene 
on land owned by Landia and Florida Favorite, and in a 700-foot stretch of 
ditch near Wayman Street, The Ledger reported at the time.

A cleanup in 2000 removed 4,750 tons of tainted dirt and replaced it with 
uncontaminated dirt.

Some tainted dirt was also removed from the grounds of the Onesiphorus 
Gospel of Christ Church on Olive Street, EPA officials told The Ledger in 
2000.

Dana Willhoit can be reached at dana.willhoit at theledger.com or 863-802-7550.

http://www.theledger.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20061017/NEWS/610170347/1004