LA PORTE, Ind. — Multiple fire departments responded to a fire at an old rubber factory.
La Porte’s Fire Department was called to the fire around midnight Wednesday morning to the old American Rubber factory on Brighton Street.
By the time firefighters got there the fire had begun to spread, “The fire got away when it started and we were not notified of it until well into flames coming through the backside of the building,” says Fire Chief Andy Snyder in a Facebook video.
As the fire burned through the building, a wall collapsed from the damage.
Firefighters say that nobody was in the building when the fire started and that there have been no injuries.
That factory was being used to store hand sanitizer. The fire department believes that negligence in watching the hand sanitizer may have contributed to the large extent of the fire.
“Probably should not have happened. Because we were aware that they were storing hand sanitizer in there, but they were supposed to have somebody on this site 24/7 and that’s not what was happening,” said Chief Snyder.
Firefighters worked throughout the entire morning trying to put out the fire. Due to the smoke caused by the massive fire, the Emergency Management Agency has issued an air quality advisory and warns residents to stay away from the area.
“…Largest fire in sometime, if not the history of the city of La Porte. I want to remind everybody La Porte is not a dumping ground, and this is not acceptable in any way,” said La Porte Mayor Tom Dermody.
