The weather isn’t the only thing heating up Athens today.

A chemical fire at the J & J Chemical warehouses north of town has been burning since early Wednesday and does not seem to be stopping any time soon.

Chuck Gulley, Athens-Clarke Emergency Management Agency Coordinator, outside the chemical fire at J&J Chemical warehouse.

Chuck Gulley, Athens-Clarke Emergency Management Agency Coordinator, has been at the site since the call.

“The original call came in after just after midnight,” Gulley said. “We expect it to continue burning through the day and into the night.”

The J & J Chemical Company makes cleaners, deodorizers, urinal blocks and fragrance enhancers for toilets and porter johns. The main chemicals in the warehouse were glutaraldehyde, formaldehyde and the royal blue solution dye which is the coloring for most of their products.

Emergency teams from the ACC Hazmat unit and the UGA HART crew have been trying to contain the leaking chemicals since the beginning of the fire.

“Glutaraldehyde is used for sterilization of indoscopic instruments, thermometers, rubber and plastical equipment,” said chemistry Graduate Coordinator Professor George Majetich. “Since they use it for sterilization for medical instruments, I would have to say that there will be a minimal effect since it will be oxidized to a compound that’s found in our own food.”

“Formaldehyde is an extremely toxic chemical for aquatic life, this includes both plants and animals,” said James Porter, Associate Dean and Josiah Meigs Distinguished Professor for Ecology. “A high concentration could be very toxic to the river.”

Gulley specifically wanted the public to know if the Oconee River is blue for a few days, that it is still safe.

“The dye they use to color the blue you see in the toilet bowls has run off into a storm drain and into a small stream behind the facility,” said Gulley. “We have a response unit on site to clean that up.”

The warehouse was full of equipment and barrels of chemicals, none of which is salvageable at this point. Firefighters have yet to start trying to contain or investigate the fire because they cannot get close enough to the building in it’s current state.

“This is a rare occasion,” Gulley said. “This is the safest route to take for all the firefighters. It’s a metal building and the side panels are folding in, so the structure is a total loss anyway and is not worth the risk to the firefighters lives to go in.”

Firefighters decided to let the fire blaze itself out when at 8:15 a.m., they thought it was contained, then several more barrels exploded in a fiery inferno once again starting the blaze.

“You should have been here at 8:15,” said Gulley. “That was a pretty beautiful picture.”

“There’s no information as of now about the cause of the fire,” said Gulley.

Next door neighbor to the J&J facility, Global Pharmaceutical Supply Group for Noramco, Inc, is not worried about the fire but have taken safety precautions just in case.

“We are monitoring the situation and keeping an eye on it,” said general manager John O’Hara. “We are working with the local ACC Fire who’s over there now as well as the other local resources.”

Timothy Johnson, a Normaco employee, said “we have procedures in place to handle emergencies like these and we enacted our emergency plan. It goes back to ensuring the safety of the people, the environment and then our facilities.”

“This is definitely not a fire drill,” O’Hara said.

The J & J Chemical Company refused to comment about the situation.

While there were no injuries in the explosion or the resulting fire, the devastating damage is not just on the J & J Company and their workers who are now temporarily jobless. With the burning chemicals and debris causing plumes of smoke a mile high and the run away chemicals heading straight for the Athens river system, the damage to the environment is just as bad.

“Someone surely has notified the Environmental Protection Agency,” said Porter. “This thing could range from an unfortunate event to something that could cause water treatment plants to close temporarily.”