ReutersAn overnight fire that destroyed two buildings in an industrial area of Bridgeport, Connecticut, and forced about 400 residents to evacuate, also may have polluted a popular fishing area, officials said on Friday.
The blaze, which began Thursday evening, sent several fireballs into the air as superheated drums of perfume and other chemicals exploded inside the Rowayton Trading Co, the city fire department said in a statement.
The flames were so hot that they melted the sidings on houses across the street, the department said.
“The fireballs and the heat were like nothing I have ever seen,” Mayor Bill Finch said in the statement. “Thankfully, no one was seriously injured. There was no loss of life.”
The fire caused a large power outage but by midnight the United Illuminating Co. website reported all but 133 customers had been restored.
Early Friday, the state and U.S. Coast Guard were testing water samples from the Pequonnock River and the Bridgeport Harbor to determine if water run-off from firefighting efforts carried any hazards into the waterway.
A foamy substance with a red tint was seen in the water and the Coast Guard sent a helicopter over the harbor and along the shoreline to determine its spread. As a precaution, all commercial and recreational fishing was prohibited in the area until testing of the water is completed, according to Coast Guard Capt. Ed Cubanski.
The cause of the fire remains undetermined.
(Reporting by Curtis Skinner in San Francisco; Editing by Lisa Von Ahn and Bill Trott)
http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/09/12/us-usa-fire-connecticut-idUSKBN0H714C20140912