Tag Archives: fire

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the clean-up at organic valley headquarters is under way.

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the clean-up at organic valley headquarters is under way. I.

it’s been just a few days after the fire at organic valley headquarters, but the clean-up ( and soon rebuild ) process is well under way. the parking lot is filled with yellow servicemaster fire and water damage recovery vehicles. the left (west) side from the red gambrel of the building is a total loss, but the right (east) side is salvageable to varying degrees.

the far right side is a new 33,000 square foot addition which was not significantly damaged and may be able to house employees quite quickly after getting a thorough cleaning.

the clean-up at organic valley headquarters is under way. II.

the west end of the building suffered significant damage is will be razed and rebuilt. the fire is still smoldering and flared up last night causing the local volunteer fire department to come back out and douse it with 500,000 gallons of water at 2 a.m.

the clean-up at organic valley headquarters is under way. III.

of course, this whole mess is very personal since i work here! but it’s extra personal to know that kris’ desk is right smack in the middle of this picture on the 2nd floor. so, thankful that she was not in the building and that everyone else got out safely.

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after the fire, a good samaritan rescued the only truly priceless object from my desk at organic valley!

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after the fire, a good samaritan rescued the only truly priceless object from my desk at organic valley!

the day after the fire at organic valley headquarters some emplyees who had work areas that weren’t destroyed or in structurally unsound areas were let back into the building for a few minutes to gather “critical” documents.

not wanting to be in the building for too long since there was a line of people waiting to get in after me, i gathered a few things that i needed for work and left a lot of other stuff thinking that i’d get another chance to get it. that chance never came since later that day officials announced that employees were not allowed back into the building and i was really bummed out because i left a painting that odin made for me when he was six that’s been hanging near my desk for several years.

i am so thankful that good samaritan who was allowed into the building grabbed the painting from my desk a day later!

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after the fire at organic valley headquarters.

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after the fire at organic valley headquarters. I.

sadly, there was a fire at organic valley headquarters yesterday that damaged the west portion of the building pretty badly. luckily, kris and i were not in the building when it was evacuated around 4:10pm. i left at 4:05 in the rideshare van back to viroqua with my computer and phone to get prepared to leave town for a few days for a department retreat. so i’m lucky to have a computer an an internet connection and can keep calm and carry on from home while we figure out the next steps.

looking at the damage from the fire today, i’m so very thankful that everyone got out of the building and that nobody was hurt. while certainly sad to see the damage, property is – of course – replaceable and rebuildable and i have no doubt that the cleanup and rebuild will happen quickly. fortunately, our distribution center and other facilities are fully operational and we have contingency plans in progress so we are able to continue to deliver all the wonderful products you love 🙂

it’s been awesome to hear all the expressions of support from the community, around the state and around the country. i know it really does mean a lot to me and all the other employees.

tomorrow i get to go in and recover what i can from my area which is on the 2nd floor to the right next to the new addition all the way to the right and somewhat distanced from the major damage. kris’ desk is on the 2nd floor pretty much right smack dab in the middle of the worst damage. i doubt she’ll be able to recover anything.

after the fire at organic valley headquarters. II.

my understanding is that while the rest of the floor looks like a bomb went off, my relatively notorious leaning stack of papers that i’ve been meaning to clean up any day now for the past year that has always been threatening to teeter over is still standing and still threatening to teeter over.

you can view the large version of the panorama to get a better sense of the damage.

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to build an upside-down fire ( and revolutionize sauna starting? ).

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to build an upside-down fire ( and revolutionize sauna starting? ). I.

i was out with some friends recently who burn wood in a fireplace and they were raving about an “upside down” fire technique they read about in timothy ferriss’ book “the four hour chef” which was originally posted on his blog, “How to Build an Upside-Down Fire: The Only Fireplace Method You’ll Ever Need”.

with the upside-down method you put the largest logs on the bottom ( make sure there is no space at all between them ), tut a second layer of smaller logs on top of the large layer with no spaces between them anbd so and so forth until you top with a layer of kindling and paper.

as a card carrying member of the traditional “tipi” method of building fires ( with the kindling at the bottom and logs at the top with plenty of space for air to flow through ) this method sounds like nothing short of heretical craziness.

THE BIGGEST LOGS ON BOTTOM?! YOU HAVE NO AIR FLOW! WHAAAAAT?

but my friends swore by the method and best of all they said it was very easy to maintain which would revolutionize building fires for the sauna. because while i love having sauna, starting a fire with the tipi method means committing yourself to tromping down to the sauna every 20 minutes or so for the first 90 minutes while you slowly build up a bed of coals and bring the sauna up to proper temperature.

could it possibly be true? with an “upside-down” fire could you really “set it and forget it”?

to put it to the test, i stocked the sauna stove chock full of full with the largest logs on the bottom, layered with very little space between logs and layers and a modest amount of paper and kindling on the top.

at this point i was skeptical that it was going to keep going after it burned through the kindling.

clearly there’s not enough air flow.

to build an upside-down fire ( and revolutionize sauna starting? ). II.

after about 15 minutes, which is about the time i’d normally have to go back down to the sauna and tend to the fire, it’s burned through the kindling and looks like it has a good start on the layer. and doesn’t need any stoking or poking!

to build an upside-down fire ( and revolutionize sauna starting? ). III.

after 30 minutes, it’s really starting to go. the middle layers are fully engaged but i’m still skeptical there are enough embers to keep it going and that the bottom logs will do anything other than smolder.

to build an upside-down fire ( and revolutionize sauna starting? ). IV.

well, whaddya know, after 60 minutes even the large logs are fully engaged and there’s a solid bed of coals going! all with no tending! i probably could have let it go for another 30 minutes of so without needing to add any logs.

so, from a “set it and forget it” standpoint the “upside down” fire is an unmitigated success!

i’ll experiment more in the future and see how i can boost the heat output of the fire. at this point it was about 70°F in the sauna which is a long way from the 190°F-210°F you want for a proper sauna ( at least in our sauna, according to our temperature guage ). timothy claims the “upside down” method produces much more heat than a traditional “tipi” but i didn’t find that to to be the case.

it didn’t produce any less heat per se and generated a nice bed of glowing embers which made it easy to throw more wood on and quickly get it to temp but it’d be awesome if i could find the perfect combination of wood to “set it and forget it” and get it to temp all at once in about an hour.

the upside-down fire was so successful, i think i might have to check out “the four hour chef” to see what else i can learn 🙂

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viroqua fire department training fire.

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viroqua fire department training fire. I.

i was out on a evening run and i happened up a training for the viroqua fire department on the 200 block of north center avenue across the street from nelson’s agricenter.

at first i didn’t know it was a training fire and couldn’t figure out why there weren’t any sirens on and everyone seemed so calm.

it started out slowly…

viroqua fire department training fire. II.

but even though they were putting plenty of water on the fire, it got roaring pretty quickly which makes it all the more frightening to think about how fast it would have gone had they not been there.

viroqua fire department training fire. III.

nelson’s has a warehouse filled with lumber right across the alley so they were making sure it didn’t get to hot on the north side ( on the right ) of the fire.

viroqua fire department training fire. IV.

the second story of the building starts to collapse…

viroqua fire department training fire. V.

the building, which i believe had been boarded up and abandoned for awhile, collapsing with a spray of sparks and flying embers. a fairly spectacular event to watch up close.

viroqua fire department training fire. VI.

now there’s something, thankfully, you don’t see every day. i’m getting a brief glimpse of the adrenalin rush firefighters must get when putting out a blaze.

viroqua fire department training fire. VII.

they started really dumping the water on it after it collapsed and i got a good dose of vapor from the evaporating water mixed with flaming soot and decided it was time to move along!

i hope everyone stayed safe while keeping it under control!