Fire at natural gas plant causes substantial damage
</element><element id="paragraph-1" type="body"><![CDATA[An early-morning explosion at the Compressed Energy Systems natural gas plant sent area fire departments scurrying.
Fortunately, the scurrying paid off - the damage at the natural gas plant on state Route 34 just beyond the Raleigh curve could have been much worse.
"Everybody's fine," owner Chris Schimp said in answer to the most important question after a fire.
"I think I got some belts hot. I was out here at midnight changing some belts."
Schimp said the most likely scenario is a belt slipped and caught fire, then spread through the building.
"I don't know how it got to the gas inside," Schimp said.
Firefighters from Eldorado, then Galatia and Harrisburg responded to the scene about 7:30 a.m. after a report of an explosion at the gas plant. Schimp shut down the gas after he discovered the fire, which made fighting the fire much easier for the three departments.
"Once we got here, all we had to do was knock (the fire in the) structure down," Eldorado Fire Chief Mike McKinnies said.
McKinnies started calling for tanker trucks and assistance as soon as he received the call about the explosion. Eldorado firefighter Jeff Griffin arrived at the scene first and was able to brief firefighters about the situation before anyone else arrived, McKinnies said.
McKinnies started sending tankers back to the station about 8:30 a.m.
The building is a total loss, but the tanks beside the building were not damaged. In all, about $300,000 to $500,000 damage is possible including the building and machinery, Schimp said.
"That's nothing compared to the production," Schimp said.
"You've got insurance, but insurance doesn't cover the production loss."
Compressed Energy Systems pulls methane gas out of the old mines in the area and puts it on a pipeline after processing. The operation sits at the end of a lane off state Route 34.
Traffic at state Route 34 and Raleigh Road was diverted for a while after the fire departments began arriving on the scene. Traffic was back to normal again by about 8:30 a.m.