SHREVEPORT, La. (KSLA) – Firefighters discovered a hazardous material was involved in a fire at a local business, and were unable to use water to fight it.
On Sept. 13, at 12:09 p.m., the Shreveport Fire Department (SFD) responded to a fire at a single-story commercial building on the 8700 block of Line Avenue.
Maintenance personnel at the business put in the call to report the fire.
Firefighters arrived within five minutes of the report and did not see smoke of fire visible from the outside. But, upon further investigation, they found a machine on fire at the rear of the structure with maintenance personnel using fire extinguishers to suppress the fire.
SFD discovered that a hazardous material, hexavalent chromium, was involved in the fire, and that no water could be used for the extinguishment. Knowing this, firefighters worked to remove several flaming filters from the machine and place them outside. With the filters contained inside non-combustible barrels, the fire was allowed to burn itself out.
The Louisiana State Police Hazardous Materials Team and the Louisiana Department of Environmental Quality were both notified.
No public evacuation orders had to be issued and there is no threat to the public.
All employees of the business were able to evacuate safely, and there were no injuries.
32 firefighters responded to the reported fire.
The official cause of the fire remained under investigation.
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