COLUMBUS - Most Columbus Chemical Industries employees were back in their offices on Monday for the first time since fire struck a warehouse at the company on Temkin Road north of Columbus on Monday, May 11.

"It's our first day back with normal business hours," said Steve Quandt, executive vice president for the company.

Those hours are 4 a.m. until employees leave in the early evening.

"We couldn't be happier to be back to work," Quandt said.

Offices and manufacturing are housed in Building 3, which is 12 feet from the burned building.

The company brought construction trailers in Monday for temporary lunchroom and office space.

Inspections of the burned area ended around noon on Friday and demolition began at 1 p.m. that day.

"We know the origin of the fire," Quandt stated. "We just don't know the cause."

The fire began in the northeast corner of the building, according to Quandt.

Quandt said that contractors are still monitoring wells in the area, and that the results are "favorable" at this point. The company is still supplying bottled water to some residents.

Workers are decontaminating everything that was in the building which burned and anything which has been used since the fire in that facility. Air monitoring is also occurring at four different locations every eight to 10 seconds, around the clock.

Quandt added that water and air samples were being taken within an hour of the fire on May 11.

The main production facility was cleaned from floor to ceiling by 40 people from First General Services of Madison over Memorial Day weekend. The floor had to be cleaned due to runoff from the fire, and pallets that were on the floor had to be decontaminated.

"We saved something approaching $200,000 of inventory and we can use it all," Quandt said of efforts to reclaim materials from the area near the fire.

In response to the fire, Columbus Chemical is planning to build a 3,000-pallet warehouse on the south end of its property. This building will be bigger than the one which was lost in the fire.

"We're presently storing about 2,000 pallets," Quandt said. "We're planning to grow this business. We're not planning it to stay still."

Quandt said that some employees are still temporarily using office space at Farmers & Merchants Union Bank in downtown Columbus, and some are working from their homes via the company's computer network.

On Tuesday night, the company will host a fish fry at Kestrel Ridge Golf Club for all the contractors who have been working on the project - many of whom are from far away and have only heard about Friday-night fish fries in Wisconsin.

"These guys have been working 15 hours a day since May 13," Quandt said, adding that included all of Memorial Day weekend.

Quandt said there were 55 contractors on site on May 26. He said Columbus Chemical is currently working with two electrical contracting companies and three environmental contracting companies.

He said that since there were no other environmental catastrophes occurring at the time of the fire, the contractors were available to help.

"We have the best environmental contractors in the country," Quandt said. "I just am so sorry that so many people were so inconvenienced."

pscharf@capitalnewspapers.com