While butter is delicious, it shouldn’t be running through canals where water used to be. A historic Wisconsin canal was transformed into a melted butter stream after a fire broke out at a dairy plant.
Firefighters in Portage, Wisconsin, were called to the Associated Milk Producers Inc. (AMPI) plant shortly after 9 p.m. on January 2, 2023, when a fire alarm went off. Crews from the Portage Fire Department attempted to gain access to the building but couldn’t due to heavy smoke and the butter runoff.
“When we first tried to go up the stairs to that part that collapsed, this stuff, the butter was running down like 3 inches thick on the steps so our guys were up to their knees trying to go up the steps to get to the top, and they’re trying to drag the hose line, the hose line got so full of butter they couldn’t hang onto it anymore,” Fire Chief Troy Haase said.
The fire department determined that the blaze was started in the room where butter was being stored. As it heated to a warmer temperature, the butter began to flow throughout the structure.
Crews were able to extinguish the fire before it could spread past the firewalls and throughout the rest of the building. A hazmat team was called in to contain the runoff into the storm sewers and the canal using a boom, as well as other absorbents.
Fortunately, no injuries were reported but the fire does remain under investigation.
Source: https://www.nbc15.com/2023/01/03/multiple-agencies-responding-portage-dairy-plant/