The Wichita Fire Department said an accident with a forklift caused the three-alarm fire at the Coleman Company at 37th Street North & Hydraulic on Wednesday.
“They were unloading a semi-trailer to another semi, one-pound propane cylinders, and … one of the forklifts accidentally punctured one of the crates, and that basically created a chain reaction of what the fire was started from,” Battalion Chief Jose Ocadiz, WFD, said.
Two employees got dry chemical fire extinguishers to extinguish the fire. Unfortunately, it did not work as the propane cylinders began to explode, and the fire progressed very rapidly.
Fire crews got the call around 5:15 p.m. The first crews to arrive saw flames and heavy smoke coming from the east-side loading docks. They quickly requested a second and then a third alarm to get more firefighters to the scene.
Ocadiz said there were more than 1,000 of the one-pound propane cylinders involved in the fire. The cylinders were exploding and launching several hundred feet in the air.
Several grass fires ignited near the structure and several hundred feet to the southeast.
More than 80 firefighters battled the blaze. They had to stretch more than 900 feet of fire hose inside the warehouse to protect the rest of the building.
Crews working their way into the building discovered the fire had extended to several hundred coolers.
All the workers in the building escaped safely.
The first crews to arrive at the fire did not get back to their stations until after midnight. While Wichita and Sedgwick County firefighters responded to the Coleman fire, fire departments from Derby, Andover and Cheney helped cover the rest of Wichita.