Fire Engineering Magazine: Medical Records Destroyed; Warehouse Blaze Last Week Damaged Storage Business
http://www.fireengineering.com/index/articles/Wire_News_Display/1214950664.html
Hundreds of medical records perished in a large warehouse fire last week that started in a heating, ventilation and air conditioning unit, fire officials said.
The fire at 1301 Broadway NE caused about $10 million in damages, Albuquerque Fire Department Chief James Breen said.
Fire officials were still working with the owner of TMM Business Record Storage to try to recover medical records that did not burn. It was unclear whether the warehouse’s medical records belonged to Albuquerque residents, but calls to TMM were not returned Tuesday. A message on the company’s website says the company has not assessed the damage.
More than 75 firefighters, including those at the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, responded to the blaze on June 23. Breen said the fire was accidental and started in the HVAC unit at Cross Country Auto Parts, on the southeast corner of the building. He said the unit was working well and inspected in April. “It’s the largest fire in recent memory for the Albuquerque Fire Department,” Breen said. The three-alarm fire took days to put out. “What really made this a significant event was the high winds,” Breen said. Clouds of smoke could be seen for miles as heavy winds carried them across the downtown area. Other businesses at the warehouse are Factory Motor Parts and Cottonwood Sales and Distribution Inc.
Breen said recovering the undamaged medical records is a priority but firefighters cannot safely enter the building yet.
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Read MoreTMM Business records Storage Fire 6-24-2010
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Firefighters Thursday say they have made tremendous progress against a blaze at a business records storage facility that ignited Wednesday.
Officials said the massive fire started at about 8 p.m. Wednesday at Broadway Boulevard and Rosemont Avenue. Odelia Road and Broadway Boulevard were shut down to traffic because of the blaze.
No one was inside at the time and no injuries were reported.
Strong winds hampered firefighting efforts after the blaze broke out about 7:45 p.m. Wednesday in the block-long, one-story brick warehouse north of downtown Albuquerque.
The warehouse houses three businesses, one of them being factory auto parts. The fire was fueled by pallets of papers and boxes stacked at a business records storage facility, officials said.
Fire department spokeswoman Melissa Romero said firefighters Thursday had confined the blaze to the storage business, TMM Business Records Storage. She said, however, firefighters have not been able to go inside the building to survey the damage. Romero said fire investigators are not expected to be able to enter the building before Friday.
The company’s website claims it is a 40,000 square foot facility used to store hard copies of documents and media. The company indicates it scans and backs up everything on site. It also touts a regularly tested disaster recovery plan.
Fire officials said they haven’t spoken yet with TMM officials, but say the other businesses in the complex aren’t damaged.
Action 7 News called TMM Business Records Storage Thursday afternoon. The company had no comment on the fire.
Winds died down by Thursday, but about 45 firefighters from 15 units remained on the scene.
Wednesday, officials roped off much of the area surrounding the facility, but that didn’t stop spectators from watching.
“We just wanted to see where all the smoke was coming from, because they were diverting all the traffic,” one spectator said.
“We saw the smoke and we decided to go chase the fire,” said another spectator. .
The cause of the blaze has not yet been determined.
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