SAEGERTOWN, Crawford County — An explosion and fire gutted a large structure at the Lord Corporation plant in Saegertown Sunday, Feb. 9, leading to a large response from fire departments from around the region.

Officials at Lord, a division of Parker, offered updates and reassurances to residents in the area.

The “major explosion” ripped through a building at the plant in Saegertown at 10:40 a.m. Sunday in an incident that sent 13 people to the hospital, according to borough manager Chuck Lawrence Jr.

“Be advised,” a statement from Lawrence said Monday. “Saegertown Borough water is safe to drink and use. The water system was not affected.”

The air quality also is being monitored and remains good, according to Lawrence, and repairs to a water main break that occurred during the response to the fire are underway.

The Lord plant will remain closed “until both us and public officials are satisfied that it is safe to return” a company spokesperson said in an email.

“The initial crew was blown right out of the building,” Lawrence said in a Sunday interview in front of the chemical adhesives plant hours later as four aerial engines continued to shoot water into the structure.

Multiple firefighters on scene feared the blast would prove fatal for one or more of the four firefighters who led an interior attack on the blaze.

“I thought they were dead,” one told a group assembled inside the equipment bay of Saegertown Volunteer Fire Department’s station following a news conference later in the day.

Ultimately, however, only one firefighter sustained minor injuries, according to Lawrence, while the vast majority transported to the hospital were taken as precautionary measure.

Those transported included five Saegertown firefighters, one of whom was taken to UPMC Hamot in Erie, and one from Edinboro Volunteer Fire Department, plus seven Lord employees, four of whom were seen as a precaution, according to Lawrence.

The impact on the plant — which produces chemical adhesives, coatings and specialty materials used in the automotive, aerospace, industrial, and oil and gas industries — was far more significant.

“There was major damage to the facility,” a Lord Corporation spokesman said in an emailed statement after the fire had been isolated.

Lawrence, who became a volunteer firefighter in 1968, has witnessed hundreds of responses to incidents of varying degrees of seriousness at the plant over the decades.

“This was by far the worst,” he told the Meadville Tribune. “You never anticipate anything like this.”

Emergency preparation steps were working as expected, according to Lawrence.

“Water from the fire was contained in retention ponds designed for containment if an incident like yesterday ever happened, and the system worked,” he said. “The contained runoff is currently being removed by an approved contractor.”

All the firefighters transported to the hospital have been released, according to Lawrence.

About 33 plant employees were working at the time of the fire, according to the company spokesperson, and four were transported to the hospital.

“All four were later released,” said Christopher Farage, vice president for international human resources and external affairs. “Any injuries were, thankfully, minor.”

The response to the fire quickly involved dozens of fire and ambulance crews from around Crawford and southern Erie counties as well as Crawford County Emergency Management personnel, Saegertown Borough officials and staff members from the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection.

Lawrence said any additional updates would be posted to the borough’s website, saegertownpa.com.

Emergency response Sunday began when Crawford County 911 received an automatic alarm from Lord Corporation at 10:36 a.m. and sent a Saegertown crew to respond. Lawrence said such alarms occur when an automatic sprinkler in the plant is activated or when an employee pulls a fire alarm.

Before fire department crews arrived, a plant crew responded.

“Parker Lord Corp. has a very good on-site hazardous materials team,” Allen Clark, the county’s emergency management agency coordinator, said at an afternoon news conference. “They responded and secured what they could.”

A crew from the station located a half-mile north of the plant arrived within minutes and found smoke coming from a building located in the center of the 44.6 acre campus, according to Lawrence.

“They responded just like they always do,” Lawrence said. “They were in there fighting the fire and they’d been there for a few minutes fighting the fire when there was an explosion.”

The interior attack lasted “until the situation escalated,” Chief B.J. Fleischer said. “From there on it has been an exterior operation.”

The explosion that propelled firefighters out of the structure left much of the north-facing side of the building open to the elements, with large sections of metal siding crumpled on the ground nearby and smaller portions hanging from pipes exiting the side of a nearby structure. Damage from the blast appeared in the crumpled overhead doors and corners split nearly from top to bottom of nearby structures.

The explosion occurred after a second alarm was issued, according to Lawrence.

As a third alarm was issued and units from Crawford County and parts of southern Erie County responded to the blaze, four aerial engines led the attack, shooting streams of water down on the structure’s perimeter.

Following the explosion, authorities on scene called for an in-house, in-place evacuation at the plant, sounded the disaster siren and began contacting residents in the area to advise them to stay indoors, Lawrence said.

A precautionary shelter-in-place advisory was issued for areas within 3 miles of the plant, Clark said, “in case of any airborne contaminants.”

Given the nature of the work at the plant, Lawrence said the release of chemicals in emergencies is always a concern but speculated any involved were likely incinerated in the explosion.

By 1:33 p.m., the aerial attack tapered off, and over the next hour crews on scene began to mop up activities. By 2:30, with the shelter-in-place advisory lifted, Fleischer said the fire was “under control” as fire crews worked with on-site maintenance crews to secure the site.

Lawrence said the process of mopping up hot spots would continue “probably for most of the night.”

Numerous residents in the area felt the force of the blast, according to anecdotal reports at the fire station, with some calling to check if an earthquake had occurred.