Fire leaves Minnesota town coated in butter

[illflem]

http://www.duluthsuperior.com/mld/duluthsuperior/10328645.htm
BY PHILLIP PINA

ST. PAUL PIONEER PRESS


NEW ULM, Minn. - Heat from the fire caused much of an estimated 3 million pounds of butter to melt, burn or seep out the loading dock doors. Some of it flowed three blocks downhill into the Minnesota River before dikes were built to create a block-long pond that stood 2 feet deep in parts. That is when the Minnesota weather finally helped..

On Thursday afternoon, amid the fatigue from hours of fighting the massive blaze, the slippery surfaces and the wreckage of the plant, even Fire Chief Curt Curry recognized some humor in the incongruous scene.

"We were looking for 40,000 loaves of bread at 2 o'clock this morning," he said, trying to wind down with a smile after working the intense fire all night.

Work crews used backhoes during the day to slice through a pond of partially resolidified butter that spread from the Associated Milk Producers Inc. plant.

[ze_dscherman]

1. Yuck

Imagine the rancid smell this will give in a couple of days ...

[htuttle]

2. That happened here in Madison years ago

Cheese and butter warehouse burning for DAYS and days. Apparently, there was a pool of melted butter covering the street all around it.

[Dover]

3. Add egg farm & flour mill and one chocolate factory....mix well....

and they can bake themselves out of this mess. I do love homemade cakes and cookies!

[Eloriel]

13. ROTFL

thanks for the giggle.

[Shakespeare]

4. Now if we could just get a truck full of lobsters to crash there....

:9

[Warpy]

5. This made me think of the Boston Molasses Flood

I remember smelling molasses in the North End on hot, humid days in the late 60s.

Pancakes for everyone!

[pagerbear]

6. Or the big scramble in Miami

...when an egg truck collided with a berr truck on I-95 and backed up traffic for hours.

[soleft]

7. Exactly!

I just sent this article to two friends of mine who recently read the book Dark Tide which was all about the molasses tragedy. Did you know that the investigation of the explosion was linked to anarchists Sacco and Vinzetti, and the situation was very similar to what's going on now with the Patriot Act.

[wicket]

11. Supposedly the smell is still there

I'll have to go down there in the summer when it's hot and see if I can smell it :)

[latteromden]

8. Oh, how I love my state.

...WTF, butter?

[Beetwasher]

9. Mmmmmmmm, Iowa....*drool*

n/t

[Strawman]

10. Reminds me of the end of "Real Genius"

When Hathaway's house was destroyed by laser cooked popcorn.

[banana republican]

12. I'm getting the popcorn!!!!! n/t