Guardian begins to clean up 500 tons of glass

DeWitt Fire Chief Bob Sandry said the molten glass "looked like lava flowing down from a volcano." The glass leak happened during routine maintenance, and six fire departments spent about five hours pouring cold water on the spill, which turned it into glass. The plant is designed for molten glass to flow into the basement in such an event.

"This is the first time we´ve had to use it at the DeWitt plant," William Rice, human resources manager for the company, said Tuesday. "The area in the basement is designed to contain the glass. This was a rare occurrence." Rice estimated about 500 tons of molten glass went into the basement. "We had an outstanding response from the local community. The fire department worked with our employees," he said. He had no estimate of the damage or cleanup costs yet, but said the company expects the affected production line to be down for a few days.

Sandry said workers were doing maintenance on an oven when one of the sections came out and the molten glass spilled, flowing three stories down to the basement. "We were pouring water on it to make it into glass," he said. "They lost several thousand tons of molten glass. There´s a huge amount of glass to clean up." While the fire departments rotated 12 to 15 crew members in and out of the hot temperatures of the plant, Guardian employees remained working and local medical personnel and the Gateway Chapter of the American Red Cross provided support for heat-fatigued firefighters. 

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