"It just went 'kaboom!'" Exploding propane tanks ignite large fire at business on Milwaukee's south side

MILWAUKEE (WITI) — It was a scary start to the work week for folks who live near Acme Galvanizing on Milwaukee's south side. Fire officials say exploding propane tanks ignited a large fire at a south side Milwaukee industrial company. Witnesses tell FOX6 News they heard between five and 12 large booms.

Billowing black smoke could be seen for miles around Monday morning, March 16th as the two-alarm fire burned at Acme Galvanizing.

No one was injured.

The explosions rocked and rattled a south side neighborhood just before 8:00 a.m. Acme Galvanizing, a company that prepares steel to stand up to the elements found itself face-to-face with the most dangerous element of all.

"The tanks with the flames shooting off of them," John Trapp said.

Deputy Fire Chief Terry Lintonen says the propane tanks were in a storage shed. Workers were evacuated as fire crews battled the flames.

"When it started blowing up me and a couple other people grabbed fire extinguishers. Once we got there and realized it was the propane tanks on fire, we realized there was nothing we could do," Trapp said.

Trapp says he ran, along with everyone else.

"We've got a lot of guys who I guarantee don't run and they were running today, you know what I mean?" Trapp said.

Several employees tell FOX6 News they witnessed what they believe to be the cause of the explosions and subsequent fire -- a propane gas delivery gone awry. They say the technician filling the tanks may have improperly connected his hose.

"As he was filling, he disengaged, and the hose basically sprayed propane everywhere. We had a forklift down, and the maintenance guy turned the key to turn it on and the spark ignited everything.  It's right next to 30 propane tanks, oxygen tanks," Alan Rosenau said.

"He was filling it up, and it started spraying everywhere. There was a forklift gig back there.  He didn't see that happening. He started the forklift and that ignited a ring or something to that effect," Kevin Wright Jr. said.

"That guy basically yelled into the building, 'Fire! Everybody run!'" Trapp said.

"He just started running, and I started running behind him," Wright Jr. said.

Wright Jr. escaped and then captured video.

"It just went 'kaboom!' Smoke was all in the air, all over, filling the sky. Sky was a big black cloud of smoke. I was thinking this whole plant's gonna burn down -- like 'wow!'" Wright Jr. said.

Meanwhile, forklift driver Kevin Poindexter took cover behind a dumpster.

"I was driving, and I seen two or three guys running. I'm like 'fire?  What?' I pulled the cell phone out and started recording. I was like 'Oh, man.  I gotta get this on camera,'" Poindexter said.

Poindexter says the whole ordeal is still a blur to him.

"It was like -- I don`t know what it was like! Like an airplane had crashed in the back of the company," Poindexter said.

The fire was contained to just one stand-alone storage building, and firefighters were able to extinguish the falmes within an hour.

"We did have several explosions of propane tanks," Lintonen said.

Thankfully, no one was injured, but everyone was shaken.

"Man, I thank God to be alive.  I thought I was dead back there for real. I guess it ain't my time," Poindexter said.

There were hazardous materials crews on scene Monday, but after testing the air, officials determined there was no danger. As for Acme Galvanizing, Lintonen says he believes the main structure is okay and the company should be back in business soon.





Acme Galvanizing specializes in metal coatings. According to Acme's website, the company has an 80,000 square foot building. It's continuously adapted to meet the changing needs of their customers.





Acme offers the metal coating market zinc coating processes. It was founded by Irving Herrmann in 1919.  Peter Napiecinski joined the firm in 1936.  Together they created the framework for the growth of Acme Galvanizing. Edward Weiss Sr.   and Allan McGovern took over control of Acme in 1961, and automated and expanded Acme’s metal coating services until 1984 when Edward Weiss Jr. and James Weiss took over active management of the company.