Hercules to clear site, mull options for future

BY JOHN DUNPHY
Staff Writer

SAYREVILLE — Demolition proceedings are being expedited at a defunct manufacturing plant in light of an early morning explosion last week.

Officials at Hercules Inc. also said they are researching redevelopment options for the 700-acre site that has been out of commission for almost two years.

The explosion and subsequent fire occurred shortly after 3 a.m. Aug. 4 at a group of buildings that had been used for nitrocellulose containment. The blaze devoured several structures in the section of Hercules that was purchased by Green Tree Chemical Technologies in 2000.

Following extensive financial troubles that resulted in several layoff periods, Green Tree ultimately shut down the facility in 2003, with Hercules reassuming control in 2004 to handle the shutdown of a site that had in its heyday employed more than 2,000 people.

Another part of Hercules adjacent to the Green Tree facility is still in operation.

Emergency personnel from 26 municipalities responded to last week’s blaze, according to Barry Eck, coordinator of the Sayreville Office of Emergency Management. At its worst, flames from the fire shot up into the air as high as 100 feet from one building in particular.

“The building was about 300 feet long by about 100 feet wide and four stories,” he said. “It was just one big ball of fire.”

Because the nitrocellulose, a chemical used in explosives, lacquer and nail polish, had long ago been removed from the site, the explosion was not nearly as bad or as long-lasting as it could have been, Eck said. Residue from the old nitrocellulose had made its way into the structure of the building over the years.

Plant employees had routinely hosed down buildings that once housed the explosive chemical. But Eck said the area may not have been wetted down enough, causing self-ignition of the structures that had been infused with old nitrocellulose residue.

“You have to understand the nature of the product,” he said. “When wet, nitrocellulose is very stable. You could hit it with a hammer and it wouldn’t do anything.

“They may have either missed a spot or it just finally dried out,” Eck added.

Paul Tuck, plant manager at Hercules’ Sayreville location, said the company had been giving more attention to demolition efforts at other buildings, which could have resulted in a lack of focus on those buildings that wound up bursting into flames.

“You can’t say we did it right,” he said. “Anytime you allow something like that to go on, you can say something could have been done better.”

Tuck said a review process is under way to look at the plant’s procedures involving decommission of the facility and what should be done to ensure that last week’s events do not happen again.

Wetting efforts on buildings have also been increased, Tuck added. He said the buildings that had produced the nitrocellulose would be some of the first to be demolished, and ultimately the other 90 structures at the location will also be leveled — a process that could take anywhere from six to eight months.

“Hercules’ plan is to get the things down to the foundations,” Tuck said. “Get all the nitrocellulose issues out of there and then start looking at what can be done to the property.”

John Riley, a public relations official with the company’s home office in Wilmington, Del., said the business had engaged a real estate consultant to conduct analysis of the property and its potential uses.

“We expect something back in the coming months, but it would be premature at this point [to guess what they will recommend],” he said. “They’re looking at the site in terms of remediation, topography and market conditions, so we can figure out where to go from here.”

Riley said Hercules had conducted reviews at two of its other closed locations, in Kenville and Burlington, and has “looked at realistic development plans to bring them back to use.”

Although he was unable to say what could eventually be built on the former Green Tree site, Tuck said the company was assured something like last week’s explosion would not happen again.

“We can accept responsibility for that. But I can understand the people responsible for keeping it wet were focusing on areas where there was the most opportunity for people to get hurt,” he said. “If you get friction, you can ignite it real easy. That was the main concern.”

“That’s part of the [current] review: verifying the right procedures and making sure we have enough folks to do it,” Tuck added.