Blumen hand sanitizer was stored — and caught fire — at three sites in Grady County owned or leased by Brannan Bordwine.
The first fire occurred Aug. 7 at the former Chickasha Manufacturing location on old U.S. Highway 81 and state Highway 19. Bordwine reportedly leases that site from the property owner, Blessed Chickasha Collective, records in the Grady County Clerk’s Office reflect.
Hand sanitizer at the Chickasha Manufacturing site was so volatile that when the fire erupted there, the cast-iron lids on two manholes were blown off and the municipal sanitary sewer briefly caught fire from sanitizer that flowed into the line, state and local fire officials reported.
During the Aug. 7-8 fire, the warehouse 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 building reportedly encompassed approximately 100,000 square feet of space.
Four days later, on Aug. 11, firefighters were summoned to extinguish a fire at Bordwine Development’s principal headquarters at 1102 Pikes Peak Road in Chickasha. Bordwine owns that piece of property, records in the Grady County Clerk’s Office show.
According to the Oklahoma Department of Environmental Quality, hand sanitizer dumped into three roll-off containers on the property was incinerated.
DEQ inspectors toured that site 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. DEQ inspectors said they also found 20 to 30 pallets loaded with hand sanitizer.
The State Fire Marshal’s office reported that both fires which occurred in August at Bordwine storage sites in Chickasha “had human involvement, and spontaneous combustion of the product is not being considered as a likely cause.”
Two months later, a raging fire Oct. 18 destroyed a warehouse Bordwine leases in Ninnekah at 1003 W. Quail Lane. Also consumed by flames were an unknown number of pallets of ethanol-laced hand sanitizer stored at the site, which formerly was occupied by H&B Machine & Manufacturing.
DEQ investigators said that when they spoke to Bordwine on July 25 about the Ninnekah site, he “stated they were not dumping and burying hand sanitizer but were recycling pallets, cardboard and plastic.” He also said they were “placing some of the alcohol-based hand sanitizer in a one-half pit barrel and donating large portions of the bottled hand sanitizer to groups, organizations, and people in need.”
The hand sanitizer originated in China and Mexico “and cannot be shipped back,” Bordwine told the DEQ. He also said he had a contract to store and recycle the sanitizer.
In a related matter, an administrative law judge has tentatively scheduled a hearing next year on an administrative compliance order the executive director of the Oklahoma DEQ issued to Brannan Bordwine and a company he owns, Bordwine Development Inc.
The Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation and the State Fire Marshal’s office are investigating the fires at all three of the sites in Grady County where Bordwine Development stored the flammable hand sanitizer, Southwest Ledger was told.