Firefighters battle a three-alarm fire at a Domino Sugar plant, Tuesday, April 20, 2021, in Baltimore.
Steve Ruark | AP
A fire at the Domino Sugar plant sent white smoke billowing over the Inner Harbor in Baltimore on Tuesday, but no injuries were immediately reported, a fire department spokeswoman said.
Chopper4 footage shows the factory’s storage dome collapsing into itself.
A conveyer belt apparently carried a burning substance from a silo to other parts of the facility, said Baltimore City Fire Department spokeswoman Blair Adams. Fire and smoke could be seen coming through the roof when firefighters arrived, and the silo collapsed after they entered the building, according to the department.
Firefighters were still trying to extinguish the blaze inside the facility around 5 p.m., approximately two hours after they responded to the three-alarm fire, according to Adams.
All of the employees safely escaped from the building, and no injuries to firefighters were immediately reported, Adams said.
“All the employees were accounted for,” Adams added.
Flames could be seen from a distance after 3 p.m. at a storage facility behind the waterfront refinery. Fire boats were seen in aerial video pouring water on the fire from the harbor.
The 99-year-old refinery, which employs 510 full-time workers and is in the midst of replacing its massive, beloved neon rooftop “Domino Sugars” sign with an LED replica, processes about 6.5 million pounds of raw cane sugar a day, The Baltimore Sun reported.
American Sugar Refining, Inc., the owner of the Baltimore refinery, said in a statement that the fire’s cause is under investigation.
In November 2007, a powerful explosion and fires forced the refinery to shut down for a week. The powdered sugar mill was declared a total loss.
