Fire at Pacific Seafood Plant Forces One-Mile Evacuation in Newport, Oregon

A fire at a Pacific Seafood processing plant on the bayfront in Newport, Oregon, forced a one-mile evacuation on Sunday morning after officials warned that smoke from the burning freezer building could carry ammonia from the plant refrigeration tanks. The fire was reported at 8:20 a.m. at 213 SW Bay Boulevard, the City of Newport said, and firefighters found the roughly 11,000-square-foot freezer facility burning, with part of the building collapsed.

Between 30 and 40 people were inside the plant when the fire broke out, city spokesperson John Fuller said. All of them were accounted for, and Pacific Seafood said it was not aware of any injuries to employees. One firefighter was taken to a hospital after being treated for exhaustion, the city said. The cause of the fire is not yet known.

A one-mile evacuation on the bayfront

Lincoln County issued a Level 3 evacuation order, the go now level, for everyone within one mile of the plant because of the risk of a larger ammonia leak or spill. A shelter opened at Sam Case Elementary School. City officials urged people across Newport to stay indoors and to wear a mask if they had to go outside. Fuller told the Associated Press the one-mile radius covers businesses as well as homes and makes up a large share of the small coastal city, which has about 10,000 residents.

The city said 60 firefighters and 15 fire apparatus responded. A hazmat team from the Oregon State Fire Marshal, Team 05 from Linn and Benton counties, was sent in because the plant uses anhydrous ammonia in its refrigeration system, and the team monitored the air with specialized equipment. Small traces of ammonia were found in the smoke early in the morning, the city said, at levels that were not harmful.

Tank found intact, threat lifted in the afternoon

By Sunday afternoon the picture had changed. Newport Fire Chief Rob Murphy said the ammonia tanks were intact and not leaking, and that the product inside them was stable. State Fire Marshal Mariana Ruiz-Temple said the ammonia tank had been found and did not appear to be punctured or leaking, and that her team would stay in Newport for the duration of the incident. At a 4 p.m. news conference, officials said there was no further threat of ammonia contamination, and the main concern left was smoke from the fire, which was still burning.

By the evening, nearly all evacuation levels in Newport had been lifted, according to the City of Newport and the Lincoln County Sheriff's Office. One stretch stayed closed: Bay Boulevard between Hatfield Drive and Port Dock One remained under evacuation. A task force from Marion County, with a ladder truck and four engines, was being sent to relieve local firefighters, and a strike team from Lane County with five engines was set to arrive on Monday, October 26.

A major employer in a fishing town

Pacific Seafood is one of the biggest employers in Newport, a working port known for Dungeness crab and shrimp and home to the Oregon Coast Aquarium. Ashton Meier, the company vice president of resource sales and processing, said the company was devastated by the fire and expected it to be a major loss. Mayor Jan Kaplan said the blaze is likely to bring economic impacts for the city. The freezer building that burned has been in operation since 1946, officials said.