Category Archives: Manufacturing

Manufacturing, Manufacturing Plant

Monroe, WI – Fire controlled by sprinkler system after explosion at commercial printer

Firefighters responded to an explosion in Monroe early Saturday morning.

According to a Facebook post from the Monroe Fire Department, firefighters were sent to RR Donnelley after the sprinkler system there was activated.

Officials said when firefighter arrived on the scene, they noticed smoke coming from the building, and that some windows were damaged.

The Monroe Fire Department said there had been an explosion in the building which resulted in a fire that activated the sprinkler system.

The fire was controlled by the sprinkler system.

There was some damage to equipment and the building, however the business has sufficient backup equipment to avoid a closure.

The Monroe Fire Department also said the staff at the company worked very well with firefighters to get things quickly resolved and into recovery.

Manufacturing, Other - Manufacturing

Ferdinand, IN – Sprinkler System helps put out fire from malfunctioning compressor; No injuries reported

Units of the Ferdinand Volunteer Fire Department responded late Monday night to the report of an explosion and heavy smoke showing at a business location on West Eighth Street.

Fire Chief John Hoppenjans said the first arriving units answering the 11:16 p.m. callout determined the explosion and resulting fire was contained in the air compressor room at Leibering Lumber, 514 W. Eighth St.

Hoppenjans said a 50-horsepower compressor had malfunctioned and exploded, blowing open the doors of its cabinet and touching off a fire that was coming out the eaves of the building housing the unit. A nightwatchman reported the issue to authorities.

A sprinkler system activated and did its job, Hoppenjans said, and firefighters followed up by shutting off the electricity to the building, extinguishing hot spots and ventilating the space.

The compressor was a total loss, but the building just sustained charring to rafters and can be repaired.

Five trucks and 26 firefighters were on the scene 90 minutes.

The Ferdinand Police Department and Memorial Hospital Emergency Medical Services assisted.

There were no injuries.

Manufacturing, Manufacturing Plant

Murray, KY – Fire at window plant out out by fire sprinklers; No injuries reported

Major issues were avoided Tuesday morning when a fire occurred inside the Pella Window and Doors plant on Murray’s north side.

Calloway County Emergency Management Director Chesley Thomas said no injuries resulted after the fire was reported at about 10:45 a.m. He said the entire area was evacuated and all workers managed to leave the building without any problems.

“An all clear was given and we had nobody hurt, so they were allowing everybody back into the building,” said Thomas, who arrived at the scene after the fire had been extinguished. He said the fire began in one of the work zones of the plant. “But the sprinkler system did its job.”

Calloway County Fire-Rescue Chief Tommy Morgan said he was the third person from CCFR to arrive on the scene, behind two firefighters who came in their personal vehicles ahead of heavy response units from multiple stations throughout the county. He said that it is believed a Milwaukee battery charger may have developed a short while placed on a shelf, eventually igniting other nearby materials.

“All of the damage was contained to the shelf,” Morgan said. “There also just happened to be a sprinkler head right above it, so when it built up enough heat, that sprinkler came on and pretty much put everything out. We just went in and cleaned everything up a bit and packed everything out. There was still some stuff like paper and cardboard that was still smoldering a little bit, but everything was good, thank goodness.

“It’s been quiet for a long time on the fire side for us, so I was afraid this was going to be a big one, the way (Calloway County Sheriff’s Office dispatch) came out and said they actually had smoke showing.”

Morgan said CCFR has not had an actual building fire since October or November of 2019, but he said it has responded to several brush and woods blazes, as well as wrecks in that time. Even those calls, he said, have become fewer and farther between since mid-March when the COVID-19 pandemic basically brought things to a halt locally.

He said this was very noticeable Tuesday as he responded with his vehicle’s siren and emergency lights activated to Pella.

“I know a lot of people are still going and doing things, but I didn’t have near the trouble you normally do when you go out Fourth Street (in downtown Murray). That’s usually like a madhouse when you’re trying to go out on a call,” Morgan said. “I met like two or three cars. Normally, like I said, it’s a madhouse trying to get up there between meeting people and getting around people. It seems like people are staying in like they should be.”

Morgan said calls to respond to Pella happen every now and then and the vast majority are for false alarms. He said the last time he remembers a call being for an actual fire was in the early 2010s, shortly after he became chief, when an air conditioning unit on top of a warehouse building ignited, with CCFR units  extinguishing that fire.

Morgan said he believes seven or eight CCFR trucks did reach Pella Tuesday, with four or five others that responded, but were called back to their stations after it was determined that enough units were already on the scene. He said 25 to 30 firefighters responded to the call.

Manufacturing, Manufacturing Plant

Wayne, NJ – Fire sprinklers contain fire in manufacturing area of business

On Sunday morning, March 22, Wayne Fire Companies #1 and #2 were dispatched to Mane USA on Demarest Drive in response to smoke and water flow alarms. Mane USA is a global flavor and fragrance manufacturer with a facility in Wayne.

“When the units entered the building, they encountered a moderate smoke condition,” said Wayne Fire Commissioner Bob Minarick. “At that point fire command requested a second alarm which brought Company #5 to the scene.”

Further investigation found a fire in the manufacturing area that was contained by the sprinkler system. Firefighters extinguished the remaining fire and requested Fire Inspection to the scene.

“The fire was contained to a pallet of supplies and also a commercial storage rack that contained production items,” said Minarick. “After viewing security footage, the fire was deemed accidental. Oil and chemical soaked rags and gloves that were stored in a large closed bucket spontaneously ignited and spread to the pallet and rack before the sprinklers held the fire in check.”

Firefighters overhauled the fire area to make sure that all embedded fire was extinguished. Multiple smoke ejectors and the building’s in-house ventilation system were used to clear smoke from the warehouse.

According to Minarick, five fire engines responded to the call with twenty firefighters. The fire was declared under control in 30 minutes.  All units cleared the scene by 10:30am.

“I’d like to thank the Wane Police Department for providing scene and roadway control,” said Minarick. “Also, thanks to the Wayne First Aid Squad for standing by on scene ready to render assistance should one of my firefighters get injured or need medical treatment,”

Manufacturing, Manufacturing Plant

Blaine, WA – Commercial building fire put out by fire sprinklers; No injuries reported

A small fire occurred in a commercial building on Odell Road, but was extinguished by a sprinkler system that prevented any significant structural damage to the building.

On March 1 at about 2 p.m., a fire broke out in a commercial building at 2256 Odell Road in Blaine. The fire occurred in a manufacturing area, and North Whatcom Fire and Rescue (NWFR) was dispatched following an alarm. “We got dispatched to it as a sprinkler/water flow alarm, a fire alarm telling us that the sprinkler system was flowing,” said NWFR division chief and fire marshal Herschel Rostov.

Rostov said that when NWFR firefighters arrived on scene, they found smoke and fire inside the building. However, a sprinkler head had mostly extinguished the fire before it extended very far. Firefighters shut off the water flow, searched the building, determined the extent of damage and ventilated the building to clear the smoke.

“Sprinkler systems can sometimes be an item that building owners find to be very expensive,” said Rostov. “In this case, that single sprinkler head probably kept the whole building from burning down. This is one of those situations where it was very effective and efficient.”

The cause of the fire is still under investigation, Rostov said. He said that the fire appeared to be accidental and that nobody was injured in the incident.

The building is owned by Hugh Wiebe, who said the fire occurred in a space rented to the Bellingham company Cauldron Broths. He said that he is currently working with NWFR to assess the damage, which appears to be limited to smoke damage to some products.

Manufacturing, Manufacturing Plant

Shrewsbury, MA – Fire sprinklers extinguish fire in acid room of manufacturing company

hief James Vuona reports that the Shrewsbury Fire Department responded to a fire at Supercon Inc. on the morning of March 5.

At 3:40 a.m., fire officials received a 911 call indicating there was a fire in the company’s acid room. The acid room contains open top acid tanks where coils of wire are washed as part of the company’s manufacturing process.

Upon arrival at 830 Boston Turnpike, firefighters noticed light smoke in the building’s loading dock area. The building’s fire alarm and sprinkler systems were activated.

Firefighters metered the building’s main entrance, acid room and loading dock for dangerous or explosive gases and used a pole camera to get a visual of the acid room in order to see if a fire could be located. The meter gave negative readings in all parts of the building measured, and the camera showed no visible fire.

Firefighters were then able to enter the building to investigate the acid room and confirmed that the fire had been extinguished by the sprinkler system and that there were no leaking chemicals and no risk of contamination in the room.

The State Hazmat Team was called to the scene and deemed the building clear for operations around 5:30 a.m.

“This fire was quickly extinguished with help from the building’s sprinkler system,” said Vuona. “Thankfully there was no resulting hazmat incident or chemical related fire and the situation was quickly resolved.”

An investigation into the cause of the fire is underway by the Shrewsbury Fire Department and State Fire Marshal’s Office.

Manufacturing, Manufacturing Plant

Winchester, VA – Sprinkler system controls fire at manufacturing plant; No injuries reported

Kingspan Insulation management credits alert employees, the company’s sprinkler system and a prompt response by firefighters for limiting damage from a warehouse fire reported at 6:09 p.m. on Sunday.

Jamey Walters, Kingspan plant manager, said on Monday that Kingspan frequently does emergency preparedness training including fire drills. “We have a very strong safety culture and situations like this show how strong it is,” he said.

No one was hurt in the fire at the plant at 200 Kingspan Way off Martinsburg Pike (U.S. 11). The fire was accidental and occurred during the insulation manufacturing process, according to a news release from Lt. Adam Hounshell, a deputy fire marshal with the Frederick County Fire and Rescue Department. The first firefighters arrived at 6:18 p.m. and found smoke in the warehouse. They extinguished the fire at 6:50 p.m. and removed the burnt insulation. Some of the charred insulation could be seen outside the warehouse on Monday.

Walters said about 130 people work at the 170,000-square-foot facility and about 20 were working when the fire began. He said when the foam insulation caught fire there were “significant flames” that workers tried to put out with fire extinguishers before evacuating when they realized the magnitude of the fire. The sprinkler system then activated and is credited by the fire department for arresting the spread of the fire.

The facility originally opened as Amoco Foam Products and was later purchased by the Pactiv Corp. Kingspan bought the facility in 2014.

Walters said Sunday’s fire was the worst since Kingspan bought the property, but there were a few serious fires in 1990s and 2000s. He said fire is a risk due to the combustibility of insulation.

“Which is why we take fire prevention so seriously,” said Doug Crawford, Kingspan managing director. “It is a real risk.”

A damage estimate was unavailable on Monday. The warehouse, which opened in 1981, is valued at $9.1 million, according to county property records.

Food Processing, Manufacturing

Kidron, OH – Fire system prevents fire from spreading from boiler room at poultry processing plant; No injuries reported

The sprinkler system at Gerber’s Poultry did its job. A fire in a boiler room at the well-known Ohio poultry processor late Saturday activated an alarm, summoning the Kidron Volunteer Fire Department to the plant at 5889 Kidron Road, at 11:14 p.m., Assistant Chief Ron Taylor said.

The first officer arrived on the scene several minutes later to find no smoke or flames showing, but saw water running out under an exterior boiler room door.

Firefighters gained access to the building when the maintenance staff arrived. They found an activated sprinkler head above a fire in an upstairs area on the mezzanine. The sprinkler system had suppressed the fire and prevented it from spreading and causing further damage.

“This is why we encourage sprinkler systems,” the Fire Department wrote on its Facebook page.

Glenn Mott, vice president of compliance for Gerber’s added, “Everything worked perfectly.”

Firefighters extinguished the remaining fire with fire extinguishers.

A second alarm and the Rapid Intervention Team were canceled once the extent of the fire was determined to be under control.

Kidron Fire declared the fire out at 11:31 p.m. Crews remained on scene to do an overhaul and clean up until 12:38 a.m.

No one was in the building at the time of the incident and no injuries were reported. The damage was estimated between $5,000 and $10,000.

The Wayne County Fire Investigation Team investigated and determined the fire was caused by a malfunctioning heating unit that ignited material in an adjacent area.

Manufacturing, Manufacturing Plant

Graham, NC – Fire sprinklers keep fire under control at gas plant

A fire on Thursday at Luxfer Gas Cylinders on Riverbend Road prompted two alarms that brought three fire departments to the scene.

The Graham Fire Department was called by a fire alarm and several 911 calls to Luxfer Gas Cylinders at 235 Riverbend Rd., Graham, just before 2 p.m., according to a department news release.

After getting more information, the department requested a second alarm, and the Sweponville and Mebane fire departments and Alamance County Fire Marshal’s Office also came to the scene.

Firefighters found heavy smoke coming from the roof of the plant. The sprinkler system kept the fire contained until firefighters could enter the building and put the fire out.

Fire was contained to the machine where it started, but the plant suffered moderate smoke damage. Damage to the building and equipment was estimated at $250,000.

All the occupants had gotten out of the building. One employee was treated at the scene, but refused to be transported to the hospital.

The Graham Fire Department and Count Fire Marshal’s Office investigated and ruled it accidental.

Graham Police and the Haw River Fire Department also helped at the scene.

Manufacturing, Other - Manufacturing

Brookings, SD – Fire sprinklers keep fire in check in paint booth at electronics company; No injuries reported

A fire at Daktronics wasn’t as bad as it could have been, thanks to sprinklers, according to Brookings Fire Chief Darrell Hartmann.

The fire department was called out at 9:04 a.m. Tuesday to the north side of building 2 at Daktronics, Hartmann said.

“It came in as a sprinkler discharge with alarm,” Hartmann said.

Employees were evacuated and reported that the problem was “in one of the paint booths, which it was,” he said.

“We got crews inside pretty quickly; assessed if we had any fire extension,” Hartmann said.

“The sprinklers kind of kept everything in check for us, which was great. It worked the way it’s designed,” he said.

Crews pulled some of the filter units that were smoldering and made sure the fire was out and things were cooling off, he said.

“Shut down the sprinkler to minimize any more water damage,” Hartmann said. 

Nobody was injured, he said.

“Daktronics did a wonderful job,” Hartmann said. “They got their personnel out, but they were there to assist the whole time.”

Fire crews cleared the scene at 9:54 a.m.