A wood-shavings plant caught fire Tuesday morning, two months after federal workplace safety officials cited the company for failing to correct “potential fire and explosion hazards.”
Fire crews from four towns responded to reports of a structure fire about 7:15 a.m. at RWS Manufacturing, 22 Ferguson Lane. The blaze extended from an outside conveyor that moved wood shavings to an inside storage facility, Kingsbury Fire Chief Butch Chase said. “Something may have malfunctioned,” he said.
Investigators do not consider the fire suspicious and no one was injured, Chase said. The fire was extinguished by 8 a.m. “It’s the nature of their business,” Chase said.
RWS — which makes animal bedding from wood shavings for Quebec-based Royal Wood Shavings — said in July it would shut down if it is not successful in appealing $197,820 in fines from the U.S. Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration. OSHA claims the plant is exposing its employees to “potential fire and explosion hazards.”
The equipment cited by OSHA was not involved in the blaze, Chase said. A county fire inspection of the plant last month did not identify any problems, he said.
“They are on good order with us,” Chase said. He said he has toured the facility in the past and responded to three other fires on the property in the past six years.
The wood shavings produced there smoke and smolder a lot, Chase said, “but seldom burst into flames.” The building itself was aflame Tuesday, he said.
RWS was operating when the fire started. Staff had safely evacuated the building and started to suppress the fire with hose lines when firefighters arrived, Chase said. The buildings’ sprinkler system stayed on as the fire crews extinguished the blaze.
“They have an extensive clean-up,” Chase said. RWS will undergo a town code inspection and fire chief walkthrough before opening again, he said.
In July, OSHA cited RWS for half a dozen violations totaling about $50,000 and levied an additional $147,000 in penalties after the company failed to fix previously identified violations.
The Queensbury plant, which operates in the Warren-Washington County Industrial Park, was cited for 28 violations in 2013 and fined more than $233,000 for workplace safety violations related to fire, fall and explosion risk. Two of those violations were deemed as “willful,” meaning the company ignored federal safety rules.
“RWS Manufacturing has disregarded its employees’ safety in failing to correct an obvious fire and explosion hazard and in allowing the existence of new and recurring hazards,” said Robert Garvey, OSHA’s area director in Albany in a July press release. “Especially disturbing is the fact that, since OSHA’s last inspection, a significant fire occurred in the plant’s production area in December 2015.”
A plastic container manufacturing facility in Hillsborough Township was the scene of a two-alarm fire on Monday, which prompted a large response from multiple fire companies in the surrounding area. According to fire officials on the scene at the Tri-Delta Plastics facility on Cougar Court, the incident was first reported at approximately 12:40 p.m.
Fire Marshal Chris Weniger said the fire originated from a piece of machinery. “One of the machines caught fire and the flames spread,” Mr. Weniger said. “The fire department arrived and put out the fire with the assistance of the sprinkler system.” No injuries were reported at the scene and officials said the fire was under control by 1:19 p.m.
Tri-Delta Plastics, which was purchased by Pretium Packaging in 2014, produces plastic bottles, caps and other packaging products. Mr. Weniger said the piece of equipment that caused a fire was a blow-molding machine. Due to the spillage of chemicals and oils used in that process, the marshal said a hazmat unit was deployed to the scene.
“These machines contain cutting oil – different types of oils – and because we used water, the oil is all over the floor,” Mr. Weniger said. Along with all four of the Hillsborough Township Fire companies, personnel from the Fire Marshal’s Office, the Hillsborough Rescue Squad, Millstone Valley Fire Department, the Finderne Fire Department in Bridgewater, the Elizabeth Avenue Fire Company in Somerset and the Manville Fire Department responded to the scene.
Though the site is less than a mile away from the scene of a massive fire that took place at Veterans Industrial Park back in February, Mr. Weniger said the response on Monday was no different than any other instance.
“With the size of the building and the fact that this happened at a time when our response is not as good – as well as the fact that our firefighters don’t last as long fighting fires in this heat – we ended up calling more people,” Mr. Weniger said.
An investigation into the exact cause of the fire is ongoing.
The sprinkler system at Downie Timber Mill was crucial in containing a fire that broke out at the business on Tuesday night, Aug. 30.
Revelstoke Fire and Rescue Services (RFRS) responded to the fire, following a 911 call, at around 10 p.m. on Tuesday. Fire chief Rob Girard reported that the fire was electrical, possibly sparked by one of the large air compressors.
With 17 personnel from the Revelstoke Fire Rescue Services responding to the fire, it was out in less than 30 minutes with no injuries.
“Upon arrival, fire crews found heavy smoke pouring from the rear of the compressor building and sprinklers activated,” Girard said. “We immediately ventilated and had an attack crew enter the structure for the fire attack.”
There were no occupants in the building at the time and dealing with the fire was made easier due to the installed sprinkler system.
“The sprinkler system in the mill did a great job containing the fire to the area of origin,” Girard said, “without sprinklers this fire would have been a completely different matter for us.”
“Our hats are off to the great staff and management at Downie Timber Ltd. who helped us when we first arrived right through to mop up,” Girard said. “We all realize how important this facility is to the community.”
Firefighters raced to Guilford Performance Textiles on Saturday afternoon when a machine in the production area caught fire. “An oil separator on the side of a machine apparently broke a coupler and created a fire. For the most part, the sprinkler system did take over but, we had fire in the machine,” Pine Grove Fire Chief Dave A. Sattizahn said.
The firm makes and dyes fabric for products ranging from military helmet liners to graduation gowns. The fire was reported to Schuylkill County Communications Center, Pottsville, at 3:11 p.m. Saturday. Area firefighters were dispatched to the factory at 1 Penn Dye St.
“It came in as an automatic fire alarm and it was upgraded to a working fire,” Sattizahn said. The fire occurred on the east side of the building. “It was in the last part of their processing area. The plant was on shut down. There was no production going on at the time. But there was a maintenance crew on,” Sattizahn said.
Responders included firefighters from Pine Grove, Ravine, Schuylkill Haven and Friedensburg. “It was a machine that’s used for plant production. It’s a machine they run the material through. I think it dries the material. It has a big, hydraulic oil tank on it. And, apparently, one of the couplers broke,” Sattizahn said. “So when the coupler broke, it caught on fire right away. The fire got up above the machine and the sprinkler system kicked in. The sprinkler system did it’s job. But when we got there we got the rest of it out.”
Sattizahn said when he entered the building, he saw the machine was on fire. The firefighters managed to keep the fire contained to the building on the far east end of the complex. One of the issues firefighters faced was smoke.
“That big building filled up with smoke pretty quick,” Sattizahn said. And the firefighters used draw fans and the operation’s exhaust system to deal with it. The machine sustained fire damage and the building sustained smoke and water damage, the fire chief said.
He wasn’t sure exactly why the coupling broke, but said “that oil stays hot all the time in that unit.” And he believe the fire was accidental. The fire was out by 4:30 p.m., he said.
Firefighters are working to determine the cause of a fire that erupted Saturday at an industrial complex in South Seattle. Witnesses reported seeing flames and smoke seeping from the building’s roof around 3:20 p.m. The business, located in the 400 block of South 96th Street, was not occupied at the time of the fire. There were no reported injuries.
Initially, a single fire engine was dispatched. Due to the heat of the flames and the size of the building, however, the call was upgraded to a full response. The fire appears to have started in a paint booth, authorities said.
Firefighters reported smoke coming from smoke stacks on the roof of the single-story building and from under several roll-up doors. Upon entering, they found the sprinkler system had controlled the flames. The firefighters extinguished the fire.
Twelve sprinkler heads were activated due to the fire and heat. A King County fire investigator is investigating. Multiple departments responded, including personnel from North Highline Fire, Burien, Tukwila, Kent Fire Department, Kent Regional Fire Authority, Seattle Fire, King County Medic One, Rehab One and the King County Sheriff’s Office.
Reporting on lives and property saved by fire sprinklers
