Decision To Burn Beaver Dam Apartment Building Not Made Lightly

Authorities in Beaver Dam are burning down the apartment building where a fatal explosion occurred last week. Fond du Lac Fire Division Chief Troy Haase says it is hard for people to imagine having to destroy an entire building because of explosive chemicals and dust inside it. He says, “You don’t think well now we aren’t going to be able to do anything else with it so we will burn it down. You just don’t run into those scenarios where you should be able to clean it up or you can’t, but this stuff is so unstable that they are going to have to burn the building down, but that impacts a lot of people.” Haase says firefighters are familiar with working with equipment that might set off an explosion in an unstable atmosphere. He says, “People don’t think about it, but every time you use equipment, electrical equipment, radios. You know that’s why a lot of our stuff is intrinsically safe so it doesn’t produce a spark or produce that opportunity for it to explode. So it is very touchy over there.”  Haase says a lot of volunteers will be working at the scene of the controlled burn at the Village Glen Apartments in Beaver Dam today.