Wisconsin Butter Fire

The fire occurred as America's butter surplus was near its peak, when the US government purchased excess quantities of government cheese and butter in efforts to keep prices stable. Due to the overzealous government purchasing, farmers increased production of milk and butterfat by 30 percent between 1974 and 1990 even though consumer demand was not increasing. A Wisconsin Daily State Journal article titled "The butter cup runneth over" from April 1990 reported that {{convert|330|e6lb|t|abbr=off|lk=out}} of dairy products were sitting in warehouses.{{Cite news |last=Flaherty |first=Mike |date=April 3, 1990 |title=The Butter Cup Runneth Over |url=https://www.newspaperarchive.com/us/wisconsin/madison/wisconsin-daily-state-journal/1990/04-03/page-14/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231017055633/https://newspaperarchive.com/wisconsin-daily-state-journal-apr-03-1990-p-14/ |archive-date=October 17, 2023 |access-date=October 4, 2023 |work=Wisconsin Daily State Journal |via=NewspaperArchive.com}}

On May 3, 1991, flames broke out in the late afternoon at the Central Storage and Warehouse Company on Cottage Grove Road, a {{convert|500000|sqft|adj=on}} complex that stored {{convert|10|to|15|e6lb|t|abbr=off}} of government surplus butter.{{Cite news |last=Eggleston |first=Richard |date=May 4, 1991 |title=Fire Destroys Millions of Pounds of Meat and Butter |url=https://apnews.com/article/d3d78d8a397c3bd99d1aefb44983a362 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230111185201/https://apnews.com/article/d3d78d8a397c3bd99d1aefb44983a362 |archive-date=January 11, 2023 |access-date=2023-10-02 |location=Madison, Wisconsin |agency=Associated Press}} At the time of the fire, the building also stored Ocean Spray cranberries and "millions and millions of hot dogs", according to an employee. Oscar Mayer stored {{convert|4|e6lb|t|abbr=off}} of sausages in the facility. Building owner Ken Williams stated that the fire grew so quickly that "the sprinkler systems were not able to even work."{{Cite news |last=Rivedal |first=Karen |date=January 4, 2011 |title='Huge Grease Fire' Was a Hot Mess |url=https://madison.com/huge-grease-fire-was-a-hot-mess/article_acfce336-15d1-11e0-ba15-001cc4c002e0.html |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231010151917/https://madison.com/huge-grease-fire-was-a-hot-mess/article_acfce336-15d1-11e0-ba15-001cc4c002e0.html |archive-date=October 10, 2023 |access-date=2023-10-10 |work=Wisconsin State Journal |language=en}} According to a Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources report, the damages included bakery products, hams, and {{convert|1000|lb}} of anhydrous ammonia. It took about twenty hours to contain the blaze, and eight days until the fire was officially out.

A firefighter reported flames {{convert|300|feet}} high. There were about twenty-five employees present at the factory, and none were injured.

Due to the thick, fatty pool of dairy, ladder trucks could not effectively enter and leave the area, nor could fuel trucks enter to refill the ladder trucks' gas tanks. Instead, mechanics traveled through the butter river on foot with {{convert|5|usgal|adj=on|spell=in}} buckets of diesel fuel. Spraying water at the building caused more gooey melted cheese and butter to flow out. Nearly 3,000 nearby Madison residents were evacuated on Friday night and moved to a high school because firefighters thought the flames might spread. The neighbors reported a horrible stench.

After about two and a half hours, the fire spread to a second factory building. Five hours later the building collapsed, creating a massive wave of melted butter. The fire threatened the facility's anhydrous ammonia tanks. "Once the walls caved in, [the butter] came out like a river", said fire lieutenant Berggren. City Engineering crews constructed levees to contain the dairy and lard.

Firefighters had to wade through viscous, slippery pools of butter and cheese that were {{convert|2|to|3|ft|cm|sigfig=1|spell=in}} high with {{convert|5|ft|1|spell=in|adj=on}} deep ponds in some places. The melted dairy made it difficult to use typical equipment, so firefighters remained outside the building, trudging upstream through a hot flow. Firefighter Steven Davis reported having "butter in places a guy shouldn't have butter by the end of that night."{{Cite web |last=Munson |first=Ben |date=April 30, 2021 |title=Butter Where Butter Shouldn't Be |url=https://tonemadison.com/articles/butter-where-butter-shouldnt-be/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231003184701/https://tonemadison.com/articles/butter-where-butter-shouldnt-be/ |archive-date=October 3, 2023 |access-date=2023-10-03 |website=Tone Madison |language=en-US}}

The Environmental Protection Agency states that butter spills have similar effects on wildlife to petroleum-based oil spills.{{Cite web |last=Loroff |first=Rebecca |date=January 8, 2023 |title=Melted Butter Creates Obstacles, Spills into Canal After Wisconsin Dairy Plant Catches Fire |url=https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2023/01/08/wisconsin-dairy-plant-fire-melted-butter/11014338002/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231003184700/https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2023/01/08/wisconsin-dairy-plant-fire-melted-butter/11014338002/ |archive-date=October 3, 2023 |access-date=2023-10-03 |website=USA Today |language=en-US}} The Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources worked to prevent the river of cream and cheese from clogging tubes and polluting local bodies of water. To contain the sludgy runoff of dairy, it constructed multiple dams to protect Starkweather Creek, which feeds into Lake Monona. City employees of Madison steered the butter river into a storm water discharge pond near the highway, but when the pond overflowed, some of its contents were pumped across the railroad tracks into another pond. The fire and subsequent dairy flood caused major financial losses, including $7.5 million in property damages {{USDCY|7500000|1991}}, $70 million in contents {{USDCY|70000000|1991}}, and nearly $1 million {{USDCY|1000000|1991}} in fire control costs. The cleanup cost approximately $550,000 {{USDCY|550000|1991}}, and was mostly paid by the Central Storage and Warehouse Company and a grant from the USDA.

On May 7, 1991, arson investigators ruled the fire to be an accident that originated near a battery-propelled forklift. An informal year-end survey by The Madison Capital Times named the Butter Fire the most important local news story of 1991. In October 2011, more than twenty years after the flames, the Central Storage and Warehouse company finished reconstruction along with a {{convert|42000|sqft|adj=on}} freezer.{{Cite news |last=Rivedal |first=Karen |date=January 4, 2011 |title=Central Storage & Warehouse Has Risen from a Fiery Ooze |url=https://madison.com/business/central-storage-warehouse-has-risen-from-a-fiery-ooze/article_7f2c07c6-e138-5fb1-9a6e-d4c1e9415134.html |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231017055628/https://madison.com/business/central-storage-warehouse-has-risen-from-a-fiery-ooze/article_7f2c07c6-e138-5fb1-9a6e-d4c1e9415134.html |archive-date=October 17, 2023 |access-date=2023-10-10 |newspaper=Wisconsin State Journal |language=en}}

• List of non-water floods

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Category:Food processing disasters

Category:Engineering failures

Category:1991 fires in the United States

Category:Madison, Wisconsin

Category:May 1991 in the United States

Category:Industrial accidents and incidents in the United States

Category:Warehouse fires in the United States