EVERETT — Every night, a low-light camera keeps an eye on Kimberly-Clark’s heap of shredded wood waste east of downtown.
If a fire breaks out after hours, security guards at the tissue-maker’s Everett pulp mill across town can spot the flare-up on closed circuit television monitors and quickly call in crews to douse the blaze.
“The company is not interested in going through another 2007,” said Robert Waddle, the new environmental manager with Kimberly-Clark’s Everett operations.
The waste spontaneously caught fire last year. The blaze in the stockpile became too large to easily extinguish. It smoldered for six months, sending smoke into nearby homes. That triggered fines from government agencies and scrutiny from the Everett Fire Department.
Since the fire, Kimberly-Clark has taken new steps to reduce the fire danger of its wood waste supply, including monitoring it at night.
A few flare-ups this fall prompted complaints from residents in the Riverside neighborhood, but Kimberly-Clark officials insist the incidents were miniscule and promptly addressed.
Hog fuel, made from ground-up stumps, lumber and brush, is burned to create electricity at Kimberly-Clark’s pulp mill on Everett’s waterfront. It is stored about a mile away on industrial land on Railway Avenue near the Snohomish River in Everett’s Riverside neighborhood.
The interior of large hog fuel stockpiles can reach high temperatures from self-generated heat, sometimes getting hot enough to ignite. Earlier this week, thick blankets of steam evaporated from the warm pile as heavy equipment flattened a path for dump trucks that haul the fuel away.
In addition to cameras looking for flare-ups, the company has limited the height of its pile and beefed up inspections.
It plans to install additional fire hydrants on the site soon and it is working on access roads to allow firefighting equipment closer to the pile, Waddle said.
Last year’s fire brought plenty of attention from the Everett Fire Department, which in the 1990s had spent as long as a week fighting occasional fires in the pile, said Rick Robinson, assistant fire marshal.
“We really put a full-court press on finding a way the fire department could work with Kimberly-Clark,” Robinson said.
Fire officials and Kimberly-Clark are wrapping up a fire management plan that could be approved by the end of the year.
The Snohomish Health District is also reviewing the plan. While wood-based fuel products are typically exempt from the district’s jurisdiction, failure to follow air pollution rules could create a situation where the heath district could require Kimberly-Clark to apply for permits to manage the pile.
On Tuesday, Robinson met at the hog fuel pile with Waddle and a fire protection engineer that the company hired to help it come up with a fire prevention strategy. Robert Carruthers, an environmental engineer with the Department of Ecology, joined them.
The company agreed earlier this year to pay a $165,000 settlement to the state environmental agency and the Puget Sound Clean Air Agency for mismanaging the pile.
The money was funneled into a state program to help people replace inefficient wood stoves with cleaner-burning stoves that send fewer small particulates in the air, which can worsen breathing problems and lead to heart and lung disease.
Carruthers said Kimberly-Clark has added staff to its environmental division and appears to be taking appropriate steps to prevent another fire.
The putrid smell from the slowly burning wood waste last year wore on the nerves — or at least the noses — of Riverside neighborhood residents.
Some complained that the smoke aggravated asthma, caused bloody noses and made people nauseous.
Kristi Kramer, who lives on a bluff above the stockpile, was so upset by the incident that she hired an environmental attorney and threatened to sue Kimberly-Clark.
She demanded money for the neighborhood and asked to have a say in the creation of a fire management plan. She said no lawsuit was brought because of the expense.
Kimberly-Clark’s paying a fine and taking steps to prevent another fire didn’t settle the score, she said.
“Their actions didn’t pay back the neighborhood for what it went through,” she said.
Reporter David Chircop: 425-339-3429 or dchircop@heraldnet.com.
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