It appears the spectacular fire March 27 in Wayland Township had a lot of bark, but not a lot of bite.

That’s what seemed to be the consensus Monday night at the regular meeting of the Wayland Township Board, which was successful in summoning Allegan County emergency management personnel, Wayland Fire Chief Jim Stoddard and officials from the the Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes and Energy (EGLE) to explain the fire as best they could this early in the aftermath.

Though a plume of smoke could be seen from miles around and the incident involved oil tanks along 132nd Avenue, requiring 11 area emergency departments to respond, the damage was confined and handled quickly, officials said.

Greta Gonzales, a neighboring resident, said she needed some assurance that all is now well because many years ago she was told that an underground fire could cause an explosion covering as much as one mile square.

“I was told that a fire could level the ground,” she reported, “I can’t help but wonder what that will do to my property values.”

Sean Lehman from EGLE said it’s too early to determine the extend of the fire damage, but “there’s not a lot of oil lost; a lot of it burned during the fire.” He added that the danger was contained quickly, thanks to the prompt response of the fire departments, who mostly facilitated hauling in water to extinguish the blaze.

Though Gonzales insisted she saw two towers of fire, Lehman said there were two oil tanks that were badly burned and the trouble was limited to those units.

He said pressure from the two fires caused an explosion and helped make the situation seem more dangerous than it turned out to be.

Stoddard acknowledged he and other firefighters do not know what caused the blaze and he added, “I don’t know if we’ll ever find it (the root cause).”

Some area citizens have suggested there have been other incidents over the past several years, but Stoddard said all turned out to be minor.

The Environmental Resources group is supervising the cleanup at the site now, and further problems are not expected.

In other business Monday night, the Township Board:

• Approved the Allegan County Road Commission’s recommendation to accept a bid of $697,919 from Reith-Reilly Construction to pave Gregorville Road this year.
• Agreed to allow use of the township hall for Versiti blood drives on designated afternoons. Versiti representatives said they formerly used the Gun Lake Casino facility until it began its construction projects.
• Learned that the local Knights of Columbus Tootsie Roll drive collected more than $7,000, despite challenges of inclement weather.   

COVER PHOTO: Wayland Fire Chief Jim Stoddard (at right) responds to a question during teh Township Board meeting.

EDITO’S NOTE: The bid amount from Reith-Reilly was stated incorrectly in the original article. The correct amount is published here.