By Southwest Ledger Editorial Board
After five fires in 11 months at locations operated by one businessman, claims that those blazes were simply “an act of God” or “purely coincidence,” or are “still under investigation,” are utterly implausible.
A platoon of local, state and federal employees purportedly have poked around the ashes of fires that consumed a warehouse and thousands of pallets of flammable hand sanitizer at three storage sites in Grady County operated by Brannan Bordwine.
Yet still we have no answers as to what caused any of those fires.
One or all of those fires have been investigated by the Chickasha and Grady County fire departments, the Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation, the Office of the State Fire Marshal, the state Department of Environmental Quality, the U.S Environmental Protection Agency and perhaps even the FBI.
Yet to date nobody has provided a conclusive explanation how any of those fires started.
When – if ever – will the cause of these fires be determined?
We at Southwest Ledger would like to know. We have asked that question of multiple agencies multiple times, but have yet to receive a definitive answer.
Chickasha businessman and landlord Brannan Bordwine owns Bordwine Development and at least two other companies.
Although the precise details remain murky, Bordwine had an arrangement to dispose of hand sanitizer manufactured by 4e Brands Northamerica that was pulled from store shelves after the product was found to be contaminated with methanol.
Bordwine acknowledged that an untold number of pallets of flammable hand sanitizer that were consumed by flames last year at his three storage sites were received from Latitude Liquids in a business “venture.” Latitude Liquids – a company formed in Wyoming a year and a half ago whose executive director of operations is a professional chef – had a contract to dispose of several thousand pallets of unsold, tainted hand sanitizer that was manufactured by 4e Brands Northamerica.
Bordwine came to the attention of the Oklahoma Department of Environmental Quality a year ago, in July 2022, when the state agency fielded a complaint that Bordwine Development was receiving “semi-truck loads of hand sanitizer and dumping” the product on the ground at the former Chickasha Manufacturing building on old U.S. Highway 81 and State Highway 19. Brannan Bordwine was leasing that site from the Blessed Chickasha Collective.
Two days later the DEQ received a second complaint, alleging Bordwine employees were “dumping and burying” several loads of hand sanitizer and recalled hand sanitizer on land less than a mile away in Ninnekah that formerly was occupied by H&B Machine & Manufacturing. Court records show Bordwine leased that site, too.
And on Aug. 3, 2022, the DEQ “received information” that several pallets of hand sanitizer were being stored at Brannan Bordwine’s principal headquarters at 1102 Pikes Peak Road in Chickasha. Brannan Bordwine owns that piece of property, records in the Grady County Clerk’s Office show.
A fire broke out Aug. 7, 2022, at the Chickasha Manufacturing site. The building and its contents were “a total loss” and flames consumed “all hand sanitizer stored at the site,” the State Fire Marshal’s office confirmed. The origin of that fire was never determined – or if it was, it has never been revealed.
The next day, Aug. 8, DEQ personnel investigated a drainage ditch “in close proximity” to the site; they reported finding dead vegetation for approximately 725 feet and smelling hand sanitizer. The DEQ collected water samples for analysis.
Also that day, personnel with DEQ’s Land Protection Division and from the State Environmental Laboratory Services Division conducted a site visit at Bordwine’s other two sites.
On Aug. 11, 2022, a fire erupted in the sanitizer stored at Bordwine’s headquarters. DEQ personnel responded “and confirmed that the contents of three roll-off containers on the property had been burned…”
DEQ inspectors toured Bordwine’s headquarters facility on Aug. 14 and observed 28 “totes” (approximately 8,400 gallons) of hand sanitizer. A tote is “an industrial-size plastic tub” in which liquids can be transported on railroad cars. The DEQ inspectors said they also found 20 to 30 pallets loaded with hand sanitizer.
“No evidence of attempts to comply with applicable regulations governing storage, handling or recycling of hazardous waste were observed,” the inspectors reported.
DEQ inspectors collected soil, water and sediment samples at all three Bordwine locations on Aug. 14.
Two months later a raging fire erupted the afternoon of Oct. 18, 2022, at the H&B warehouse in Ninnekah just south of U.S. Highway 81 and State Highway 19; an estimated 1,500 to 2,000 pallets of methanol-saturated hand sanitizer were stored at the site.
Grady County Emergency Management Director Dale Thompson said more than two dozen firefighting vehicles and approximately 40 firefighters were on the scene battling the flames. It was nothing short of a miracle that no firefighter was injured fighting the conflagration.
Another fire at the former H&B Machine & Manufacturing site in Ninnekah destroyed methanol-laced hand sanitizer, and the gooseneck trailer on which the product was stacked, on June 2, 2023. The fire consumed everything on the trailer, and the trailer too, which buckled under the intense heat fueled by the flammable sanitizer.
The Grady County Fire Department was called out and supposedly extinguished the flames. However, an area resident who drove by the scene the next morning informed the Ledger that the fire was blazing again. Once again the GCFD was notified.
Southwest Ledger was unsuccessful in its attempt to contact someone with the Grady County Fire Department about that fire.
On July 13, another fire consumed another trailer and the flammable hand sanitizer on which it was stored at the H&B site in Ninnekah.
If you’ve lost count, this marked the fifth time in less than a year that a fire of unknown origin erupted at the three locations in Grady County where Brannan Bordwine stored flammable hand sanitizer. These fires have endangered the lives of numerous firefighters, contaminated the environment, and easily could have destroyed nearby property.
So, what has been done about this? Apparently very little.
• The State Fire Marshal’s office reported that both fires which occurred in August at Bordwine properties in Chickasha “had human involvement, and spontaneous combustion of the product is not being considered as a likely cause.”
On March 22, 2023, the Ledger sent an Open Records request to the Oklahoma State Fire Marshal, asking: “Did the State Fire Marshal’s office issue any report on the suspected cause of the fires at Brannan Bordwine’s locations in Grady County on August 7 and 11, 2022, and October 18, 2022? Was the cause determined to be arson?”
OSFM sent the Ledger copies of reports dated Aug. 11 and 12, 2022, which stated both of those cases would remain open “pending further investigational assistance and joint investigation” with the Chickasha Fire Department. In its report on the Oct. 18 fire in Ninnekah, the OSFM related that that case would remain open pending further investigation “and pertinent interviews” by the State Fire Marshal’s Office and the Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation.
• Also on March 22, 2023, the Ledger submitted to the OSBI an online form that asked:
“Did the OSBI ever submit a report after agency reps showed up at the scene of the three Bordwine fires in Grady County on Aug. 7 and 11, 2022, and on Oct. 18, 2022? If so, did the OSBI recommend any criminal charges in re the three fires? Did the OSBI determine whether arson was a factor in any or all of those fires? May I get a copy of the OSBI’s report on those three fires?”
Later that day the Ledger received a response from an OSBI special investigator who wrote: “The OSBI did assist in the investigations at the request of Grady County District Attorney Jason Hicks. For information regarding any charges, Hicks’ office will have to provide that information. Investigative reports done by the OSBI are confidential, pursuant to Oklahoma State Statute Title 74 Section 150.5.”
• The Ledger subsequently placed calls to DA Hicks at his offices in both Grady and Stephens counties and left messages, but the calls were never answered.
• On April 3, 2023, the Ledger sent an Open Records request to the DEQ, seeking “any and all records related to the fires in 2022 at all three sites in Grady County … where Brannan Bordwine and his companies had hand sanitizer stored…” The Ledger also clarified that by the term “records” the newspaper meant “not only any paper documents but also email messages.”
The agency’s general counsel responded: “Pursuant to Title 51, Oklahoma Statutes, Section 24A.12, the Oklahoma Department of Environmental Quality is authorized to keep ‘its litigation files and investigatory reports confidential.’ The investigation is on-going from a civil/administrative perspective as well as a criminal investigation. As such, to maintain the integrity of those proceedings, DEQ will avail itself of the provisions of Section 24A.12 at this time.”
• On March 30, the Ledger emailed the following inquiry to an official with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency at its Region 6 Press Office in Dallas, Texas:
“The EPA had one or more investigators on the scene of at least one of the three fires that erupted last August and October at Bordwine’s hand sanitizer storage sites in Chickasha and Ninnekah. Photos of at least one EPA representative were taken at the scene. Has the EPA concluded its investigation into those fires? Has the EPA issued any report in re the fires? Has the EPA determined whether any/all of those fires were set intentionally or occurred by accident? Any information you can/will provide would be appreciated. Thank you.”
The EPA press official responded, “I’ll look into this.” However, a week later, having received no word from her, the Ledger emailed a follow-up inquiry on April 6: “Any progress on EPA reports in re the fires last year at Brannan Bordwine’s three storage sites in Grady County?”
Again receiving no response whatsoever, the Ledger sent a third inquiry to the Dallas EPA office on June 7, this time to Press Officer Joe Robledo. He replied on June 15: “Because EPA’s investigation into the Bordwine facilities is still ongoing, the agency does not have any additional information that can be provided to the public at this time.”
In a related matter, several individuals, each wearing a jacket identifying them as a “Federal Agent,” were seen in Chickasha on Dec. 13, 2022. However, it was not known specifically which federal agency they represented.
• DEQ Executive Director Scott Thompson issued an administrative compliance order against Brannan Bordwine and Bordwine Development on Aug. 22, 2022.
Besides directing Bordwine to cease-and-desist his sanitizer disposal operations, Thompson assessed an administrative penalty of $6,653,850 – the largest cash penalty ever imposed by the agency.
Bordwine’s attorney, Peter Scimeca of Oklahoma City, said his client appealed the fine by requesting a hearing before an administrative law judge. That hearing initially was scheduled for Oct. 27, 2022, but subsequently was pushed back for nine months, to July 24, 2023.
The Ledger asked the DEQ on Friday whether the ALJ hearing is still set for July 24, and was informed Monday that Bordwine’s attorney requested, and was granted, a continuance to an indeterminate date.
• Just recently a Ledger executive had a lengthy discussion with Attorney General Gentner Drummond and laid out the sequence of events in Bordwine’s case. Perhaps Drummond, who has demonstrated he isn’t intimidated by anybody, will finally produce an answer to whether the fires at Bordwine’s properties “just happened” or were intentionally set.