Severn Peanut fire stabilizes
Published 11:44 am Saturday, August 15, 2009
SEVERN — Northampton County officials are choosing their words cautiously concerning a fire that broke out on Tuesday at the Severn Peanut Company.
According to an update provided Friday afternoon by Sharon Long, Public Information Officer for the Northampton County Health Department and Local Government, the blaze in the company’s peanut farmer stock warehouse remains contained and in control.
“Northampton County Emergency Management and Severn Peanut Company are closely monitoring the incident,” Long wrote in a press release. “Precautionary steps are being taking to ensure the safety of the community.”
In a telephone interview with the Roanoke-Chowan News-Herald, Long said officials are, “monitoring the air outside of the warehouse, environmental things like that,” she said.
When asked if there were any chemicals inside the building that could pose a threat, Long said officials were making sure fire inside the domed warehouse was contained and that the outside was being monitored.
“They’re making sure what’s inside the warehouse is contained,” said Long.
In the meantime, plans are in place to evacuate the community if the need arises.
“But that looks unlikely,” she said in regards to evacuating the community.
Long said in a recent update from Emergency Management Coordinator Tim Byers he described the situation as being “stabilized.”
Long said no injuries have been reported and the cause of the fire is not yet known.
Representatives from Severn Peanut Company discovered the blaze in the warehouse around 5 p.m. on Tuesday.
At that time, Northampton County Emergency Management was notified along with North Carolina Emergency Management.
Severn Fire Department, Public Health Regional Surveillance Team for Region 1, North Carolina Regional Response Team, and Industrial Fumigant Company of Winston-Salem were involved in the management of the incident.