Dempster fire cause deemed incendiary

BEATRICE – Investigation has yielded some information on the cause of a vacant manufacturing plant fire in Beatrice, late Friday night.

The fire at the former Dempster plant brought down the central area of the condemned facility in a blaze that firefighters fought for about five hours.

Chief Brian Daake says an investigator released some findings about the blaze on Saturday.
"The investigator was down Saturday morning. He located the area of origin and he's listing it as incendiary and it's going to be an ongoing investigation. Incendiary means that somebody started it, whether it was intentional, unintentional."

The fire apparently began in a semi-trailer that had been parked near the plant and had been left there for some time.  Beatrice Firefighters and an aerial truck remained on scene over the weekend to monitor for hotspots in the rubble. A construction company removed a portion of the face of the building along U.S. 77 that created a hazardous situation.

"There's a building in back that had extensive fire damage. We're talking about tearing that one down. That one's got a couple of smoldering spots in what's left of the roof. But, we're not able to reach it with our aerial because it's so far back there. Just to keep it from creating any more damage we'll tear that down....and then we'll be off of the highway."

U.S. 77 was still blocked off to traffic near the plant and has been routed a half-block to the east. Daake says once the aerial truck leaves the scene and the highway is reopened, firefighters plan to focus on the area toward the rear of the plant that burned, farther from the highway.

"We'll be in back with a smaller fire apparatus to do any spot fires, without people actually going onto the rubble. Anybody who's walked on piles of rocks, or whatever, sometimes those things collapse and we don't want to get anybody hurt, especially at this point."

It was not clear exactly when U.S. 77 would be fully reopened in the area of the abandoned plant. Some parts of the building's walls at the plant collapsed onto the rubble over the weekend.

Demolition work could add cost for the city as it attempts to secure Brownfields grant help through the Environmental Protection Agency, to help clean up the plant property.