U.S. 41 reopened near Port Manatee as sulfur fire extinguished

U.S. 41 near Port Manatee was reopened around midnight Wednesday after crews spent several hours battling a sulfur fire, authorities said.

Officials announced the sulfur fire was extinguished shortly before midnight after crews had battled the blaze for nearly five hours.

Earlier in the evening, authorities expected that U.S. 41 would be closed into the early morning of Thursday.

Five people who work in the area were taken to local hospitals for treatment of smoke inhalation, according to Michael Rampino, chief of the North River Fire District.

A sweeper was being run in the area when someone who works in the area noticed smoke. The five people tried to put out the fire before crews arrived and breathed in smoke, Rampino said. Fire crews had to wear breathing apparatuses to fight the blaze.

“It’s very deliberate. We don’t move fast on it. We take our time and make sure that everybody’s safe and everybody goes home in the same shape they showed up in,” Rampino said.

No firefighters were injured.

Slurry on the outside edges of a 40,000-pound pile of sulfur caught fire, Rampino explained. Hazardous materials crews were called to the scene.

The blaze, reported about 7:30 p.m., forced the closure of U.S. 41 at the Hillsborough County line south to Moccasin Wallow Road for hours Wednesday night, only to be reopened shortly before midnight.

According to Rampino, residents of the area were not in danger, and no homes were threatened.

When crews arrived, a front-end loader operated by a company near the port was on fire. To make matters worse, that fire was directly in front of a water supply, Rampino said. Crews first had to extinguish that blaze to get a water supply to fight the larger fire.

“The fire department is actively fighting a sulfur fire, and haz-mat is on the scene,” Virginia Zimmermann, senior communications manager for Port Manatee, said at 8:40 p.m. Wednesday. “The smoke is blowing toward a non-populated area. It will be about a four- to six-hour operation. Access to the port is closed at this time,” Zimmermann said at the time.

Firefighting units continued to arrive at the scene as late as 9 p.m.

Rampino said firefighters used a drone to check for hot spots and tracking the plume of smoke that was moving toward the southwest.

On April 17, a sulfur fire at Port Manatee also closed nearby roads. The blaze was caused by a truck driving over dry sulfur, fire officials said. In that incident, two people were treated for smoke inhalation.

Wednesday’s fire, Rampino said, was much larger than the one on April 17.

This story was originally published April 26, 2017 at 8:10 PM with the headline "U.S. 41 reopened near Port Manatee as sulfur fire extinguished."