Tunnel Ridge Prep Plant Restarts Following Fire
Derek Redd Trending
WHEELING -- In less than a week, the Tunnel Ridge Prep Plant is back in operation after a fire caused extensive damage.
Tunnel Ridge General Manager Eric Anderson said the company started half of the plant Saturday and the other half on Sunday morning.
Multiple fire departments from Brooke and Ohio counties in West Virginia and Belmont County in Ohio converged on the prep plant last Monday night to fight a fire that spread through the plant's top two floors for about three hours. Multiple tanker task forces were called onto the scene.
Firefighters first started working on the blaze at about 8 p.m. Monday and had the fire under control at around 11:30 p.m. Monday. No one was injured and all employees were able to evacutate the plant safely.
Anderson also offered an update on a possible cause to Monday's fire. He said burning and welding during the maintenance period inside the plant could have caused the fire.
The prep plant separates rock from coal, which it then ships elsewhere. That plant, on average, processes about 50,000 raw tons in a 24-hour period. About 55% of that becomes clean coal, Anderson said, around 32,000 to 33,000 tons.
Anderson added that production likely won't be impacted by the time the plant gets to the end of the year.
"We were able to continue shipping coal throughout the week from our clean inventory, so we didn't miss any days of actually shipping coal," he said. "We're running again. We have to catch up a little bit, but we'll be OK."