Oklahoma DEQ sues company over Grady County fires fueled by hand sanitizer
By Jason Burger
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Oklahoma (KOCO) — The Oklahoma Department of Environmental Quality is seeking over $270,000 in a lawsuit against Latitude Liquids LLC after fires fueled by hand sanitizer occurred between 2022 and 2024.
In 2022, KOCO 5 covered fires at facilities storing pallets of hand sanitizer, where flames burned for days and fire crews could only contain the blaze to prevent it from spreading.
According to a new lawsuit, the Oklahoma Department of Environmental Quality has filed this against the company that transported the hand sanitizer to Oklahoma because they still have not provided a plan for remediation and removal of the rest of the hazardous waste. That company is an Arkansas-based company that was registered in Wyoming.
According to court documents, there were seven different fires at three different facilities that destroyed the hand sanitizer, all of which were either in Chickasha or the Ninnekah areas.
Seven thousand pallets of off-spec, expired or discarded alcohol-based hand sanitizer were transported to the area.
The lawsuit says, “On July 18th, 2022, DEQ received a complaint alleging that truck loads of hand sanitizer had been dumped on the ground for disposal,” at a property on S. 4th Street in Chickasha.
It continues, “On or about July 21st, 2022, DEQ received a complaint alleging several loads of contaminated hand sanitizer were being dumped and buried on property,” at an address on West Quail Lane in Ninnekah.
The court documents also point out Latitude Liquids contracted with Bordwine Development to recycle the hand sanitizer.
Fast forward to July of this year, Bordwine Development pleaded guilty to federal charges of disposal of hazardous waste without a permit.
Attempts to contact Latitude Liquids for comment revealed that the company is no longer active as of March 2025, according to the Wyoming Secretary of State’s website.
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