Surprises are just that — surprises.

Getting out of bed Saturday morning, I wasn’t aware of what my day was going to be filled with.

Every day, I have this habit of checking my phone first thing, just in case something important came through that I needed to address right away.

When I picked up my phone, I had several text messages and notifications notifying me of the fire that broke out at Tiger Sul.

Very quickly, I got dressed, put on a hat and drove quite tired — which I don’t recommend — to Tiger Sul, or where I thought the fire was. In fact, the plant I went to was Tiger Sul’s transportation hub in Atmore.

While there, I spoke with a spokesperson from the company and tried to get as much information as I could on the fire.

Law enforcement had Highway 31 blocked from Industrial Park Road to James Road because of the effort to quell the fire and the smoke/sulfur dioxide in the air.

Once I noticed that they were letting media through the barricade, I decided to go into the fire, as it were, to see if I can get any better shots.

Nope, it didn’t happen.

Once I pulled up to the country club, I knew I wasn’t supposed to be there because the gas was way too strong for me. I felt sorry for the first responders there, but remembered they’re professionals and have masks for this kind of stuff.

I took a short video of the smoke from a distance away, and went on my way to Escambia Academy, where a football scrimmage was held.

Shortly afterward, I found myself in the office typing a story with little information to go on. Atmore Fire Chief Ronald Peebles was quite busy that day and I knew I wasn’t going to get him on the phone.

After speaking by phone on the radio, I then went to the Unity in the Community event at Grace Fellowship. While there, I bumped into Mike Lambert, the chief deputy at the Escambia County Sheriff’s Office, and he gave me an additional tip on the fire story, which I posted later.

Once the fire was out and they reopened the highway, I went back to take some pictures from the country club.

The plant didn’t look to be in good shape. The company is assessing the damage.

When I called it a day, I thought about the first responders and what an amazing job they did. It took several agencies to help out and all did a job well done.