Canton Fire Responds to Explosion at Ameri Gas

The Canton Fire Department was toned out at 1235 hours today for a reported explosion and fire at the AmeriGas facility on USH 11. Canton Fire Third Assistant Chief Erik Johnson requested tankers and manpower from both the Potsdam and West Potsdam Fire Departments while still enroute to the scene after the St Lawrence County 911 Center advised that they were receiving numerous calls on the incident. Canton Engine 6 arrived quickly and began feeding attack lines from its booster tank while a porta-tank was set up on the roadway. The building had suffered major structural damage from the apparent explosion and the subsequent fire was limited to the shop area of the building and was contained quickly by the Canton firefighters. Assistant Chief Johnson activated the Tanker Task Force 1st and 2nd alarms due to the lack of water in the area. This brought tankers from Potsdam, West Potsdam, Morley, Hannawa Falls, Pyrites, Pierrepont, Rennselaer Falls with water being shuttled from a village hydrant a mile away. Morley was on stand-by at Canton Station and West Stockholm was on stand-by at Potsdam Station. There was a potential for additional explosions due to the presence of well over 100 large propane tanks in the structure. Several large propane tanks had to be removed from the building by firefighters as they were leaking propane and could not be controlled. The cause of the explosion is under investigation by the St. Lawrence County Fire Investigation Team. There were over 60 firefighters on the scene, with 3 engines, 3 rescues, 9 tankers and 1 ambulance. Assistance with traffic control was provided by fire police from the various responding departments, the Canton Village Police, the St. Lawrence County Sheriff's Department, the NYS Police, and the NYS Dept. of Transportation. Potsdam units returned to service at 1444 hours while Canton units remained on scene until 1559 hours.