Gaps in fire preparedness at Somerset’s Lake Mariner data facility left local firefighters ill-equipped on Tuesday morning in responding to a fire in a former water treatment building.
Steve Matisz, chief of the Barker Fire Department, said firefighters faced heavy black smoke in a windowless former laboratory and office that had been burning for some time. The area did not have a functional alarm or fire suppression system, Matisz said.
“We knocked it down pretty quick,” Matisz said. “When we have a fire alarm, it goes off on a panel to tell you where to look. When we got there, they couldn’t tell us where the alarm panel was. It’s pretty much still under construction. Our biggest problem is the water supply. We tried three hydrants and they didn’t work. We ended up using tank water from our trucks. It was a very hot, smoky fire, and it would have been nice to have had a hydrant.”
Olcott, Hartland, and City of Lockport fire companies and Tri-Town Ambulance responded on Tuesday. The cause of the fire is not yet determined. The Barker Fire Department had previously responded to false alarms at the site, Martisz said.
“We go into the building kind of blind, and there’s chemicals in there,” Matisz said. “There are MSDS (material safety data sheets) sheets that we should be getting, but when I asked for the MSDS sheets I was told they were burned up in the fire. … The radio reception is poor in those buildings. It’s just been a difficult situation.”
Jonathan Schultz, Niagara County fire coordinator, said while requirements for fire hydrants depend on the locality, the MSDS are required by the federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration to be provided to firefighters.
Without fire precautions in place, Matisz said firefighters face added risk.
“I have concerns for their safety,” he said. “There’s a lot of electrical components in there. If I had known what was in that building, I may have been a little more hesitant to enter it. I have already changed our plan so that the second vehicle in is a tanker because we can’t count on their water system. Every firefighter needs to come out of there just as they went in.”
“They’re trying to build it fast, get it going, like any construction project,” Matisz said. “It seems like any time we go there, there are a lot of changes week to week. I guess you can’t really say that there’s many actual tenants anymore. The bitcoin operation stopped. They’re in the process of moving in other components for other tenants. It’s pretty much all construction. There’s hundreds of people working there every day.”
Matisz said Somerset’s building inspector was helpful in having the building shut down. Matisz said he spoke to a representative of TeraWulf, the company that leases Lake Mariner, about needing to discuss the situation.
“I’ve asked for a meeting with them again because I want to sit down with the management of that facility and say, ‘What are we doing?’ It’s a whole different situation for us as a fire department because we’re not trained for industrial situations like that. We’re going to have to buy some new equipment.”
Town of Somerset Supervisor Jeff Dewart said he spoke to a Lake Mariner representative who said they would install a hydrant near the site of the building involved in the fire. Dewart said MSDs are supposed to be located in every building, and he was told that Lake Mariner would ensure they were placed in fireproof boxes.
“They’re slowly working on it,” Dewart said. “We can tell them we want this done within 30 days. I think part of it is that things are changing so fast down there.”
Schultz said, “I’m actually meeting with (Lake Mariner) next week to work on the responses and safety aspects with everybody.”