By Tom Weber

Post-Bulletin, Rochester MN 

ST. CHARLES -- Firefighters used 2.6 million gallons of water -- up to 3,000 gallons per minute -- to fight the April 17 fire at North Star Foods in St. Charles.

That was one of a number of statistics about the fire released by the city of St. Charles as a way of expressing gratitude for help received by the community.

Seventy firefighters from 15 area fire departments were at the scene, along with 11 law enforcement agencies and six ambulance services. There were no deaths and only minor injuries during the fire among the firefighters, the 250 employees of the company and the area residents who were evacuated.

During the fire, elementary and high school students in St. Charles were evacuated to St. Charles Borromeo Church. Officials eventually ordered an evacuation of the city because of fears that 30,000 pounds of anhydrous ammonia in five giant containers at North Star Foods could not be safely contained.

Help was on the way

More names and numbers from the fire:

• Fire departments responding were from St. Charles, Lewiston, Altura, Caledonia, Chatfield, Stewartville, Hokah, Houston, Winona, Rochester, Rollingstone, Rushford, Dover, Eyota and Spring Valley.

• Ambulance crews were from St. Charles, Lewiston, Altura, Plainview, Gold Cross and Chatfield.

• Law enforcement agencies responding were from St. Charles, Lewiston, Minnesota State Patrol, Winona County Sheriff, Goodview Reserves, Olmsted County Sheriff, Winona, Houston, Houston County Sheriff, Department of Homeland Security and Winona County Search Operations and Rescue.

• Officials estimate that 1.6 million gallons of water remain in reserve at the sanitary district.

• More than 2,150 code red alert calls were made in the first four minutes of the fire.

• Nearly 700 Facebook members have responded to the Rebuild North Star Foods campaign.

• Officials also thanked area food stores, motels, transportation companies and school districts for their assistance during the fire.

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