Lightning is believed to be the cause of a large fire Wednesday afternoon. Firefighters got the call around 4pm after people in the area heard two loud explosions before fire broke out at some holding tanks at the corner of Hwy. 87 and CR 4995 in Newton County, which is on the east side of Hwy. 87, just south of the Hartburg overpass.
Smoke could be seen from miles away as firefighters from Newton County, ESD #3 & 4, and the Orange Fire Dept. assisted in putting out the blaze in seven of the eight tanks that caught fire with water and foam. Sand was used to block the oil based product from spreading.
Firefighters were wrapping things up around 7:30pm but HazMat crews still had Hwy. 87 shutdown as of 9pm.
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