Fire marshal unable to determine cause of processing plant blaze in Greene County
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The cause of the fire that destroyed a coal waste processing plant at the Bailey Mine complex in Greene County cannot be determined due to the amount of damage to the building.
The state police fire marshal said Thursday that investigators do not know what caused the May 20 fire or where it started because of the “instability and partial collapse” of the three-story building owned and operated by Omnis Bailey LLC.
The fire marshal said the blaze does not appear to be suspicious and estimated the damage at nearly $1 million
The subcontractor was using the structure to process coal waste generated from Consol Energy’s Bailey Mine in Richhill Township. The amount of chemicals and diesel fuel in and around the building created a difficult fire to fight with dark plumes of smoke billowing from the site. Nearly two-dozen fire departments from Greene and Washington counties and West Virginia were called to fight the blaze.
State Department of Environmental Protection spokeswoman Lauren Camarda said the regulatory agency is in contact with the company and has not noticed any “offsite environmental impacts” from the fire.
“DEP continues to provide guidance and oversee and monitor the sampling and handling of contaminated media, specifically, water used to extinguish the fire and precipitation that came in contact with water used to fight the fire, which has been collected onsite,” Camarda said.