At about 1:15 a.m. Friday, emergency personnel responded to a three-alarm chemical fire at the Sherwin-Williams manufacturing plant located in Andover on 13th Street, east of Andover Road, on property not far from the Kansas Turnpike.
The fire occurred in one of the facility’s outbuildings, and not the main plant. Arriving responders saw smoke, but no active flames.
The fire was contained within a steel tank. Firefighters took several hours to develop a plan for safely extinguishing the blaze. Once the plan was in place, they successfully extinguished the fire in just 15 minutes at 5:30 a.m.
Andover Fire-Rescue worked closely with a chemist from Sherwin-Williams. The fire did involve hazardous materials, and while the smoke it produced was hazardous, it was carried away and dissipated by winds from the south. There was no material run-off from the site, and no hazardous substances were released into the environment beyond the smoke.
One Sherwin-Williams employee sustained minor burns.
The Turnpike was temporarily shut down for a time near 13th Street & Andover Road as a precautionary measure. The City of Andover and Sherwin-Williams say there was no threat to the public from this fire.