Dan Fulscher, director of Logan County Emergency Services and Disaster Agency said volunteer fire departments came from all over Central Illinois including, "Mount Pulaski, Lincoln rural, Latham, Cornland and oh, so many I'd forget some."

Beason and Elkhart rescue staff remained in Logan County on standby, Fulscher said.

Some workers, like those from the small town of Chestnut, left at a time when their own villages were facing troubles.

A broken water pump Friday evening meant residents in the Chestnut and Beason communities awaited clean water from the Red Cross.

"The police and the firefighters who went in there knowing the chemicals they were dealing with -- those are the real heroes of last night," said Fulscher, who was returning Saturday evening to Lincoln after nearly 20 hours on the case.

Busy Friday evening in Lincoln coordinating water delivery for Beason and Chestnut, Fulscher got word just after 11 p.m. of the Illiopolis blast.

Within minutes, he'd talked to ESDA officials in Sangamon and Mason counties, as well as to state officials, including Rep. Bill Mitchell, R-Forsyth.

Within 20 minutes of the blast, Fulscher had secured delivery plans for several thousand containers full of drinking water for all three towns -- Beason, Chesnut and Illiopolis, he said.

The latter was desperately in need of water because of the explosion.

The American Red Cross and Anheiser-Busch promised to bring donated water by morning.

By 12:05 a.m. Saturday, Fulscher headed to Illiopolis.

"A couple miles south of Mount Pulaski, I saw a half-mile wide plume. As I got closer to Illiopolis, I saw a huge, orange glow," Fulscher said. He said the thick cloud of smoke stretched about 15 miles over the sky.

Fulscher coordinated a mobile command post near the blast site for Logan, Mason and Sangamon counties.

DeWitt County ESDA officials remained in Clinton, to cover the areas left without coverage, he said.

The Logan County official also worked closely with staff from the National Weather Service in Lincoln to follow the wind conditions that might carry the possibly toxic smoke away from the site.

"They were able to see the plume from 10:45 to 11:45 last night on the (Doppler) radar," said Melissa Byrd, a meteorologist at the Lincoln office.

Byrd said winds at the time of the blast were from the north at about 3 mph, keeping DeWitt and Logan counties out of harm's way.

"It was really Sangamon County in the path," she said. State officials don't think any toxic fumes were carried.

By Saturday morning, a semitractor-trailer and a flatbed full of water containers stopped at Beason, Chestnut and then Illiopolis.

It's been a long two days for Fulscher. But his work isn't done. This morning, he heads to Utica -- to see what he can do for the small LaSalle County town ravaged by a deadly tornado Tuesday.

"It's been a heck of a week. Hasn't it?" he asked.