Local officials, volunteers visit Rockton homes to assess Chemtool fire damage

Jun. 23—ROCKTON — Teams of local officials and trained volunteers on Tuesday canvassed neighborhoods surrounding Chemtool in an effort to gather an initial assessment on the extent homes and businesses were damaged by last week's massive industrial fire.

Local officials and engineers were joined by Team Rubicon, a volunteer veterans organization that provides disaster relief, Laborer's Disaster Response Teams and others. They interviewed home and business owners while gathering data that the Illinois Emergency Management Agency can use use to apply for federal disaster funding.

"We have volunteer teams going house to house," said Jodi Moyer, an EMS coordinator for Beloit Health System who volunteers with Team Rubicon. "We are talking to the homeowners getting some data the county is going to utilize working in conjunction with IEMA. This is data collection. Each team has a list of questions that are asked that correlate to IEMA's damage assessment software. They literally have a script to follow."

About 25 Team Rubicon volunteers answered a call for disaster response help put out to members in a 450-mile radius. The volunteers came not only from Illinois but also nearby states including Kansas, Ohio, Missouri and Minnesota among others, Moyer said.

The teams are expected to return to the neighborhoods on Wednesday in an effort to contact anyone who could not be reached Tuesday.

They were brought to Rockton after a massive June 14 industrial fire destroyed a Chemtool production facility, 1165 Prairie Hill Road, that manufactured grease and lubricants. Explosions sent debris raining down on surrounding homes and businesses. A plume of smoke could be seen for miles around.

The crews are checking to see if there is damage that has left homes uninhabitable. They are looking for damage to windows, doors, walls and roofs. And they are checking on the types of insurance that may or may not have been in place.

The assessments are a necessary step in the disaster response process, said Rebecca Clark, a spokeswoman for the Illinois Emergency Management Agency.

"Damage assessments are led by the local government," Clark said. "They will take the state around to show us the areas effected. They are going to know their community better than we are. So they take us around and show us where the damage is and what we need to be able to document and report it to the federal government."

Jeff Kolkey: jkolkey@rrstar.com; @jeffkolkey

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