GEISMAR — The headquarters of regional Hispanic foods maker Hola Nola Foods suffered catastrophic damages in a blaze fueled by grease and tortilla chips that took roughly 100 firefighters more than 20 hours to bring under control.
Authorities said the warehouse building in Geismar housed tens of thousands of gallons of cooking oil along with flour, tortilla chips, cardboard boxes, wooden pallets and other highly flammable materials that were hard to extinguish. Firefighters were still working to douse lingering hotspots Wednesday afternoon.
A privately held company, Hola Nola Foods has annual sales of $6.9 million and 41 employees with products in stores in Louisiana, eastern Texas and southern Mississippi and Alabama. The greatest concentration of stores with its products are in the Baton Rouge and New Orleans markets, according to Hola Nola Foods' website and a Dun and Bradstreet profile.
Past news accounts indicate Hola Nola Foods had a tortilla factory inside the complex.
The company was founded in the early 2010s by two former Zapp’s Potato Chips executives and minority shareholders. Kevin S. Holden and Rod Olson left the Gramercy chip company a few years after Utz Quality Foods Inc. acquired Zapp's in 2011.
Parts of the building, which is in a commercial business park on Industrial Drive along La. 30 near the Ascension's chemical corridor, had to be disassembled with excavators and backhoes so firefighters could put water and foam fire retardants more directly on the burning material, authorities added.
The Louisiana State Fire Marshal's Office on Wednesday began investigating the fire, which started sometime before 2:30 a.m. Tuesday. Officials were expected to draw on extensive video surveillance in the probe, authorities added.
No one was injured in the blaze.
Holden, Hola Nola's president, said the damage is pretty extensive and displaces not only the company's manufacturing capacity but also its main offices. The company is operating for now out of donated space in a neighboring business's offices.
Company officials hope to continue interim production with help from other regional food makers who aren't Hola Nola's direct competitors, Holden said, but plan eventually to rebuild or possibly relocate to another building.
"We're working with the insurance company right now, assessing what can be spared, what can be done," he said.
Distribution is based out of Harahan and will continue until supplies run out.
James LeBlanc, chairman of the regional Ascension fire district that encompasses many of the departments that fought the blaze, called it the largest commercial fire in his more than 30 years as a local fire chief in the parish.
LeBlanc, who is also a local chief in two Ascension fire departments, said firefighters from nine fire regional departments and three chemical plants fought the fire. He credited the extended hours they spent on the blaze, which had already fully engulfed the building when firefighters arrived early Tuesday.
LeBlanc said firefighters estimated the building had 30,000 to 40,000 gallons of oil and grease in individual containers. Firefighters didn't leave the scene until 1:30 a.m. Wednesday but had monitors in place to handle hot spots that rekindled later in the day.
He said firefighters were still working Wednesday to remove individual pallets and other materials from the building to douse them with water.
LeBlanc said the grease from the fire may end up permanently damaging bunker gear and other equipment, raising a potential significant cost for local fire departments.
He added that environmental remediation contractors had to be called to the scene to handle the grease- and oil-infused water and foam draining from the blaze to keep it from escaping into local sewers.
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Fueled by grease and tortilla chips, Hola Nola Foods fire called biggest commercial blaze in recent memory - The Advocate
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