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Forsyth County News
J Your "Hometown Paver" Since 1908 J
Vol. 95, No. 014
Chemical fire forces evacuations
Ga. 400 closed, traffic snarled
by Thursday morning blaze
By Steven H. Pollak
Staff Writer
An explosive chemical fire
Thursday morning at a fertilizer com
pany in south Forsyth led authorities
to shut down Ga. 400 and evacuate
everyone within a half-mile of the
burning building.
No one was injured in the blaze
which began around 8 a.m. at the
Regal Chemical Co. build
ing on Branch Drive just
off McFarland Drive.
Ron Fister, sales and
marketing director at
Regal, said the first
employee to arrive for
work Thursday morning
walked in the building,
smelled smoke and called
911.
The company manu
factures and blends fertil
izers at the facility on
Branch Drive, he said.
Fister said he believes
the fire started at an oven
inside the building which
is used to warm chemicals
in the fertilizer blending
process. The oven’s thermostat “must
have malfunctioned,” he said.
The fire burned rapidly with inter
mittent explosions and caused the
75,000- to 100.000-square-foot steel
building to cave in on itself.
Deputy Fire Chief Dwight Clark
said firefighters worked to prevent the
blaze from spreading to nearby busi
nesses. However, firefighters did not
spray water on the flames because of
the unpredictable nature of burning
chemicals. In addition, the water can
cause environmental problems as it
drains away from the property and
carries chemicals along with it, he
said.
Meanwhile, motorists in the south
ern part of the county waited in long
lines of traffic as deputies closed Ga.
400 between McFarland Road and
Hwy. 141 for close to an hour and a
half Thursday morning.
There were no reports of injuries
or irritation caused by the burning
chemicals but deputies opted to divert
traffic on Ga. 400 because the smoke
from the fire had become thick enough
to affect visibility on the highway.
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Photo/David McGregor
Nissan and Chevrolet trucks sit side by side after they wrecked on
Buford Dam Road Wednesday afternoon, killing a 67-year-old
Cumming woman.
Woman killed in wreck
By Steven H. Pollak
and Colby Jones
Staff Writers
A 67-year-old Cumming woman
died Wednesday afternoon after her
compact pickup struck a larger truck
on Buford Dam Road.
Claudette Patterson was transported
to Northside Hospital Forsyth where
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Other area facilities also took pre
cautions.
The doors were closed at South
Forsyth High School, Vickery Creek
Middle School and Big Creek,
Midway and Vickery Creek elemen
tary schools to keep children from
inhaling the hazardous fumes.
At Big Creek, the air intake system
was shut off due to fumes blowing
downwind of the fire at a rate of 3
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were assured that the school system
was in constant contact with the EMA
and fire department and that a school
maintenance crew was out in the field
monitoring the situation.
Regal Chemical manufactures
agricultural chemical products, prima
rily for the turfgrass and landscaping
industry. A company Web site lists
several products for golf course fair
ways and greens, as well as weed and
insect control.
Regal Chemical Co. was incorpo
rated in Tennessee in 1970 and
became a Georgia corporation in
1996, according to information
obtained through the Georgia
Secretary of State’s office. The corpo
rate offices were located at the fire
site.
While the company listed a num
ber of regional sales and marketing
representatives, it was not known at
press time if the company has other
manufacturing or distribution facili
ties.
Staff Writers Harris Blackwood
and Nicole Green contributed to this
article.
she was pronounced dead, according to
the Forsyth County Sheriff’s Office.
Witnesses reported seeing Patterson
slumped over the wheel before her
eastbound Nissan pickup crossed the
centerline and struck the oncoming
Chevrolet truck about 4:30 p.m. in the
900 block of Buford Dam Road near
See FATAL, Page 2A
INDEX
Abby 3B
Church events 6A
Classifieds 6B
Deaths 2A
Food 4A
Horoscope 3B
Opinion 7A
Sportslß
FRIDAY January 23,2004
miles per hour, according
to school system spokes
woman Jennifer
Caracciolo.
“We shut off the air
intake from our computers
[at the school system’s
central office], so it was
instantaneous,” Caracciolo
said. Air intakes later
were closed at Midway
and Vickery Creek ele
mentary schools and
Vickery Creek Middle
School after wind patterns
shifted.
Big Creek fielded
numerous calls from par
ents concerned about their
children’s safety. They
Time to get out some
super recipes for
the big game.
Page 4A
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Photos/Audra Perry
Firemen watch as smoke billows from Thursday’s warehouse fire. Inset left, Asistant Chief Tony
Chapman directs firefighting efforts at the scene. More photos, page SA.
Republicans laud Bush speech
By Nicole Green
Staff Writer
While local Republicans applaud
ed President Bush’s State of the
Union address on Tuesday, Forsyth
Democrats only applauded his
improved delivery.
“His delivery style is getting bet
ter. I’ll give him that,” said Cary
Bennett, leader of the grassroots
campaign in support of Democratic
presidential candidate Howard Dean
of Vermont.
The president spent the first half
of his speech discussing the War on
Terror and the United States’ mission
in Iraq and the Middle East.
“I thought he did an excellent job
of confronting the critics with
regards to the War on Terror and war
in Iraq and Afghanistan,” said U.S.
Rep. Nathan Deal of District 10 in a
telephone interview on Wednesday.
Bennett is a local critic of the war
in Iraq. She said the Bush adminis
tration skewed intelligence on
weapons of mass destruction and for
mer Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein to
incite the American public to war.
“If [Bush]
would have admit
ted that Saddam
was a bad man like
[Slobodan]’
Milosevic and we
needed to go in
there and liberate
the Iraqi people,
he might have had
my vote,” Bennett
said. “But he has
done nothing but
inflame Islamic fundamentalists and
terrorists.”
Milosevic is the former Yugoslav
president currently on trial in a
United Nations tribunal for war
crimes, including genocide, from the
Balkan wars of the 19905.
In the Republican stronghold of
Forsyth County, Bennett’s dissension
is a whisper compared to the boom
ing support of the Forsyth County
Republican Party.
“Hope is bom from freedom. All
homicide bombers are born from
despair. Freedom in the Middle East
will make a better world,” said Jim
Harrell, chairman of the Forsyth
See what’s
happening in
local churches.
Page GA
County Republican Party.
Along with Democratic U.S. Sen.
Zell Miller of Georgia, Lauren
“Bubba” McDonald Jr. of Forsyth
County threw his support toward the
president. McDonald was a
Democratic member of the state
House of Representatives for 20
years, though he said he is no longer
affiliated with the Democratic Party.
"I think George W. [Bush] has
been a constant and determined
leader in a very perilous time,”
McDonald said.
As property taxes, health care
costs and college tuitions rise across
the nation, Bush will face a perilous
time on the home front, as well. Bush
urged Congress to make last year’s
tax cuts permanent to stimulate the
sluggish economy.
Many of Georgia's state and fed
eral representatives agreed with the
president’s proposal.
“Economic success is always the
better avenue to increase revenue at
the state and federal level. By mak
ing tax cuts permanent we’re allow-
See REPUBLICANS, Page2A
Deal
Sunny
High in the mid-40s.
Low in the high 20s.
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• IGIT 306
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fl MAIN LIBR 1C
LAKE LANIER LEVELS
Date Level
Jan. 18 1068.01 ft
Jan. 19 1067.91 ft
Jan. 20 1067.82 ft
Jan. 21 1067.82 ft
Full 1071.00 ft