ARABI, La. — St. Bernard Parish Fire Chief Thomas Stone said Friday that investigators are confident that the fire at the Domino Sugar refinery in Arabi was not intentionally set, though there is still uncertainty on its cause.
Stone said fire investigators are going through the time-consuming process of determining the cause of the fire but believe it was accidental because of the location where it started.
“We’re even looking to see if it was possibly a lightning strike,” Stone said. “We are looking at all areas that we can and, hopefully, we are able to determine what caused the fire.
The three-alarm fire started around 4 p.m. in one of two 10-story silos at the refinery which was packed with sugar, the fire department said. It took two hours before firefighters could get the flames under control.
There were some reports of an explosion prior to the explosion, but Stone said the company does not believe that one happened.
Some firefighters, who were staged in Baton Rouge ahead of Hurricane Laura, had to rush to St. Bernard Parish to fight the fire.
About 130 Domino employees evacuated from the refinery safely, but there was significant damage to the historic building.
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WWL-TV reporter Danny Monteverde contributed to this report.