Night fire fought at ethanol plant

Local firefighters responded to a fire call at the Abengoa Bioenergy ethanol plant just east of York, around 3 a.m., Wednesday morning.
York Fire Chief Kevin Stuhr said the fire was contained to a “tube” that is approximately three to four feet in diameter.
“There is heat inside that tube and normally, air moves through it,” Stuhr said. “However, the plant lost power and when that happened, the air movement stopped. That allowed the heat to build up, which started burning the insulation around the tube.
“While the fire was contained to just that tube, it was quite challenging — because the fire was in the center of the plant, and the tube was between 20 and 30 feet off the ground,” Chief Sthur explained.
He said they called for mutual aid from Waco, “to provide more manpower. We needed it, because of the taxing physical aspects of putting out this fire.”
There was no structural damage to the plant itself.
Chief Stuhr said he did not have a dollar figure, regarding the estimated damage.