Desperate drenching tactic. Firefighters on an aerial ladder aim into flames to slow the out-of-control fire at the Joe Rud trucking operation. The fire burned into the night.
Welder critically burned as paints exploded
As sun setting. Caledonia volunteer firefighters target remaining hot spots from heir aerial ladder truck.
Tallest rmainjng remnant. Heat-bent and twisted and at Joe Rud Trucking complex. Inside was a body shop where trucks eere repired and fixed.
Pulling, pushing, Firefighters not manning hoses struggle to save one vehicle at rime from inferno. Most were lost.
CALEDONIA, Minn. – Townspeople have a pretty good feel for what triggered the massive fire that wiped out the Joe Rud trucking facility over the weekend. It started from a welding spark next to the body and paint shop inside the sprawling structure. On his own tome, as was his habit, Joe Taylor, 40, of Caledonia, was working on a stock-car racer when a spark ignited a paint can. The flames exploded other paint and spread to fuel tanks on trucks and other vehicles, including a classic car collection. Stacks of tires caught fire. This was about 8 p.m. Hundreds of people leaving the nearby Houston County Fair witnessed the explosions, one after the other. Then they saw a med-evac helicppter drop down and fly Taylor to emergency medical care. Flames shot 80 feet and propelled thick black plumes of smoke upward. Volunteer fire crews scrambled to Caledonia, one of them from 20 miles away in New Albin, Iowa. From a telescoping ladder, two firefighters aimed water down into the fire. Other units worked from the ground to cool he fire. The neighboring Sno Pac plant, which processes local organic crops, was spared.