By Jane Prendergast
Enquirer staff writer

LOWER PRICE HILL - Just hours before a warehouse erupted into the most massive and spectacular fire in Cincinnati in years, the city offered the company owner $1.2 million for the property and about 12 acres around it.

If Queen City Barrel Co. owner and president Edward Paul had signed the deal, it would have been the first step to redevelop the site into a combination of light manufacturing and office space.

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When City Council approved an urban-renewal plan for brownfields more than a year ago, the site on Evans and South streets in the industrial neighborhood just west of downtown was their top priority.

Brownfields are usually abandoned, possibly contaminated, industrial or commercial sites targeted for redevelopment.

The deal was contingent upon a clean environmental inspection. The city was working on environmental testing around the perimeter.

The building held between 40,000 and 50,000 barrels that had been partly cleaned and were waiting to be shipped out for more cleaning and reuse.

Now, the owners, the city and nearby residents who've complained about the company's odors for years will have to wait for the results of an investigation into the cause of the fire that burned orange-hot for hours, spewed smoke that could be seen for miles and continued to smolder Friday. Experts from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms' National Response Team were expected to arrive this weekend to help local investigators determine what sparked the blaze. Damage was estimated at $5 million.

Firefighters continued Friday pouring water on the shell of the 400,000-square-foot building. No one was seriously hurt. Assistant Fire Chief Mike Kroeger was treated for heat exhaustion.

BY THE NUMBERS

• 112 firefighters fought the fire. • 28 firefighting companies were at the scene. • 10 fire departments either helped Cincinnati fight the fire or staffed vacated fire houses. They were: Delhi Township, Green Township, Anderson Township, Norwood, Golf Manor, St. Bernard, Sycamore Township, Reading, Miami Township and Springdale. • 3 million gallons of water were used by 7 a.m. Friday. That's as much water as it takes to fill Coney Island's Sunlite Pool, the world's largest recirculating swimming pool at 200 feet by 401 feet.

WHOM TO CALL

• Cincinnati Health Department: 357-7200. • Ohio Environmental Protection Agency: 614-644-2160 • Hamilton County Health Department: 357-7207

WHAT WAS IN THE BUILDING

• Between 40,000 and 50,000 barrels, some steel and others fiberglass. • Chemicals used in photographic processing, often used to clean the barrels. • Paint. • Wooden palettes.

WHAT'S NEXT

• Cincinnati Fire Department has control of the fire scene. No timeline has been set. • A Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives team will be at the scene Sunday to help determine where and how the fire started. • After the fre investigation is complete, the city Buildings and Inspections Department will take control of the buildings. Inspectors have already determined that the buildings immediately surrounding 801 Evans St. will likely be condemned.

RECENT 5-ALARMS IN THE AREA

• June: Shadow Hill apartments on Sharon Park Lane in Sharonville. • October 2003: Royal Crown Convention Center, Sycamore Township. Building was in the process of being condemned. • January 2003: Clovernook Drive apartment complex, Mount Healthy. Four families displaced. Multiple alarms called in part because it was cold. • Christmas Eve 2002: Walnut Hills house fire that spread to a neighboring house, causing $150,000 damage. • April 1993: Alexandra Apartment complex heavily damaged in Walnut Hills. No one was injured in any of the fires.

No one would discuss a possible cause Friday, nor say whether the fire's cause appeared suspicious. Both local and federal officials insisted that requesting some of the country's top experts in arson and explosives only meant that the city needed help to quickly identify a cause. The national team of about 20 senior ATF special agents will come with their explosives response vehicle, which is loaded with equipment to help them pick through the layers of soot and debris in an attempt to find its cause, said Pat Berarducci, an ATF spokesmanin Cincinnati .

"We really do feel very strongly that your firefighters risked their lives to fight that fire,'' he said, "so we're coming to help them.''

The federal help also comes at a time when Chief Robert Wright is in the process of cutting $2 million from his spending for the rest of the year. Berarducci said the ATF will rent bulldozers, cranes, backhoes and any other necessary equipment to dig through the rubble.

Mayor Charlie Luken promised that the investigation into the fire's cause would be complete and independent and that inspection records would be examined.

Reports of inspections provided to the Enquirer by City Manager Valerie Lemmie's office Friday indicated that the fire department last inspected the site in May 2002. Then, inspectors found nothing wrong, typing only, "OK.'' Those records show nothing noted since defective sprinklers and holes in the floor in December 2000.

Wright and other officials said they had not had a chance to review the inspection reports.

"We'll look back at the records,'' Luken said. "The fire department inspects this place regularly, and we'll learn from our experience here and continue to figure out ways to make things safer.''

Owner Paul met with city building and fire inspectors and insurance agents Friday morning. He said the company would resume operations in the next few days to a week, depending on when the fire chief and building inspectors release their control of the site.

Paul said he had returned from Louisville and was in his office next door when the fire started about 6:30 p.m.

He said his company is an industry leader in following environmental safety rules. He said he looks forward to working with officials to determine the cause of the fire that heavily damaged the 104-year-old building, part of a company that has been in his family for three generations.

The building, known as the "Old Lawson Building," was used to store empty steel and fiberboard barrels and also housed a pallet company. Queen City Barrel, which has acquired most of the buildings on the block through the years, bought the former garbage can factory in 1998 for $575,000, county property records show.

Fire union president Joe Diebold, who was at the building Friday night, said he was concerned about possible health ramifications based on some of the chemical labels on the barrels.

"The reason they're there is to clean them out,'' he said. "So there's got to be residue in them.''

Despite worries Thursday that the plume of smoke might be harmful, Health Commissioner Dr. Malcolm Adcock said Friday that preliminary tests on air samples taken during the fire revealed that the air was not harmful. The department worked with a private laboratory to feed fire information into computer models about weather and wind, making a real-time environmental picture.

"Certainly, even as we speak, even the particulates are well below the levels for health effects,'' he said.

More extensive tests were ongoing. Officials canceled their orders for residents to remain in their homes about 3:30 a.m. It had been in effect for a five-mile area around the fire, ordering residents to go inside, seal up their windows and doors and turn off air conditioning and ventilation.

Wright said the fire department's initial investigative work could take a week. After that, the city's building and inspections department will take over. But officials said one building, at 801 Evans St., was so badly damaged it would be condemned.

The fire put on hold the city's negotiations to buy the property. Had the purchase been finalized, Lemmie said the city would have been responsible for demolition and cleanup. Now, the owner or his insurance company will be responsible for repair or demolition.

The company has a long history with City Hall.

Luken called it the "poster child" for the city's 1980 "Right to Know" law, which requires that the public to have access to information about hazardous materials in their neighborhoods.

Councilman John Cranley announced earlier this year the reinstatement of the city's Clean Air ordinance two blocks from Queen City Barrel.

Paul said he expects more attention from the city. He said the fire appeared to start in the basement of the center of the building, which contains air-compressing equipment.

"You're certainly going to have some scrutiny,'' he said.

"This was no small fire. ... (The city) has some questions. We want to answer them."

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Reporter Gregory Korte contributed. E-mail jprendergast@enquirer.com