ALEXANDRIA — Area firefighters learned firsthand on Sunday that conventional firefighting methods will do little to stop a blaze if fire ever breaks out at the Poet Biorefining ethanol plant in Alexandria.

During a live fire training exercise held at the plant Sunday afternoon, the first of its kind, firefighters lit a series of fires to demonstrate how ethanol burns differently from conventional fuels such as gasoline.

Alexandria Fire Chief Bruce Waters invited Pendleton, Anderson, Richland Township and Pipe Creek Township fire departments to take part in the exercise along with the Madison County Hazmat team.

Dave Hudak of Poet said plant officials arranged four square steel walls on a gravel section of the plant property for the exercise.

As their peers looked on, firefighters poured ethanol from blue barrels into the designated burn areas.

Once the walls of the squares were filled with ethanol or gasoline, a road flare strapped to a pike pole with duct tape was lowered into the fuel, igniting the puddles.

Tim Thomas of the STEPP Group of Elwood, a public safety and healthcare training organization owned by Elwood firefighter Zachery Head, taught firefighters about ethanol fires during a four-hour classroom session prior to the live burn.

Thomas said ethanol cannot be extinguished with water and traditional foam used by fire departments due to its chemical composition. Just like scotch, he said, ethanol mixes with water.

It also burns differently than gasoline, Thomas said. While gasoline burns with orange flames and thick black smoke, ethanol produces minimal flames and almost no smoke.

In order to suppress an ethanol fire, firefighters need an alcohol-resistant foam called ARAFFF, Waters said.

The Alexandria Fire Department has 120 gallons of the special foam on hand in case of an emergency at the plant. But, if an actual fire occurred at the Poet plant, Waters said there is likely not enough foam in the state to suppress the blaze.

Poet also has several hundred gallons of the foam with more being ordered, Hudak said.

Waters said he wanted to invite neighboring fire departments to participate in the fire exercise because the threat of an ethanol fire is not limited to Alexandria.

With miles of railroad tracks criss-crossing Madison County carrying thousands of gallons of ethanol, every fire department should be ready to fight an ethanol fire, he said.

The likelihood of a fire at the ethanol plant, Hudak said, is low since ethanol fires are extremely rare and Poet officials take strict precautions to prevent accidents. Hudak said ethanol at the plant is contained to pipes and enclosed structures that are not exposed to heat or air, two of the components that fire needs. Fuel, in this case ethanol, is the third.