CLUES SOUGHT IN FIRE

Investigators from the state fire marshal's office, the Cape Girardeau Fire Department and the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms have descended upon remains of the former Polar Therm plant near Independence and Frederick in an attempt to determine the cause of Tuesday's blaze.

Acting Cape Girardeau Fire Chief Max Jauch said the on-site investigation is aimed at determining the fire's origin. ATF agents are interviewing people, he said.

"We've learned some information that has led us to believe we could probably find out" the fire's origin, Jauch said. "We can't disprove that somebody didn't come in here and accidentally start this fire. It's just some information that came up this morning in talking with some of the witnesses. The building wasn't as secure as it should have been."

One possible cause of the fire, which destroyed the building and contents, was eliminated while investigators worked to whittle down possible causes.

"Early on we ruled out electrical," Jauch said. "Electricity hasn't been in this building for probably over a year. Periodically people were working in this building. ATF is interviewing witnesses and the owners and the owner's family to see if anyone was in here prior to yesterday's fire."

Cape Girardeau fire marshal Tom Hinkebein said tracing the origin of the fire starts with the burn trail.

"Go from the least burned to the heaviest burned," Hinkebein said. "Once you find where the heaviest burn occurred you start working on it and cleaning on it -- you can layer it off just like a cake until you find out just where the ignition points were at."

The structure itself might aid investigators.

"A lot of times metal is good because it protects the area," Hinkebein said. "There's enough stored there that it will give a cake effect with stuff stacked on top of each other."

Investigators are concentrating on an area by the east corner of the building. The first loading bay near what used to be a tall silo, which took the bulk of the fire damage, was where Jauch and his team were looking Wednesday. It is also in that bay that a 100-pound canister of liquid petroleum gas was stored.

"The only thing we were really worried about was they had some LP containers in there. They did have a larger one just inside this door," Hinkebein said. "LP is in safe containers, but under intense heat they can rupture; and it's just like a rocket going off. You have to be real careful: A small container can clean out a large area."

Two smaller containers did burn down during the fire. Hinkebein said the safe container did what it was supposed to do to prevent an explosion.

"It worked: It released its product," he said.

"If somebody had been in here they might have dropped a cigarette or something, but right now that's purely speculation," said Jauch. "We will get back to the people at ATF later on today and we'll find out what he's found out. They stopped last night and offered their assistance. I called the state fire marshals in, and we've all worked real well together on this."

Firefighters worked in force until about 1 a.m. Wednesday. Jauch said that at the peak of the fire crews were dumping about 1,500 gallons of water on the structure a minute -- for about three hours.

A two-man crew stayed at the scene the rest of the night picking through clumps of debris and dousing pockets of fire.

Hinkebein said the nature of the stored materials, mostly rolled papers and plastic recyclables, kept the fire intense even with the amount of water poured on it.

"Most everything in there was stored in bales," he said. "Because it was tight it was more intense and harder to put out. Now we've almost got to dig it out to get it out.

"This thing could lay here for two or three weeks before they start to clear the site. And once they get to clearing the site they're probably going to have a burn."

The amount of plastics stored in the building, because of the gases they give off when burning, made it hazardous for firefighters to work downwind from the flame. Everyone in that area was wearing a breathing apparatus. Hinkebein said there were no injuries from the fire.

"This is probably the biggest fire we've had since Plaza Tire in 1994," Jauch said. "The lucky part about it is nobody was hurt. The building was so involved when we got there that no one went inside."