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.
A small fire created heavy black smoke at Alcoa’s facility at 101 RTI Way, but the sprinkler system extinguished the fire, employees were evacuated from the building and no one was injured, according to Kenny Shumate, division chief of operations for Henry County Public Safety.
He said the cause of the fire had not been determined and probably will be investigated by engineers. Something apparently caused hydraulic fluid to be released unto a huge press, he said. He did not have a damage estimate. The fire was reported shortly before 11:30 a.m., Shumate said. In all, 18 or 19 people from Henry County Public Safety, Martinsville Fire Department, Henry County Sheriff’s Department, Collinsville and Bassett fire departments, Henry County Public Service Authority and Appalachian Power responded.
A company spokesman said in an email: “We can confirm there was a fire at an Alcoa facility in Martinsville, VA on Tuesday. There were no injuries and the facility sprinkler system extinguished the fire. The impact to production is expected to be minimal, with no impact to customers.”
A fire that started in storage racks damaged the north side of the Flat Rock Auto Assembly Plant Tuesday night, causing hundreds of workers to be evacuated from the building. Firefighters from Flat Rock, Rockwood and Woodhaven responded to the plant at Gibraltar Rd. and I-75 about 7 p.m. Tuesday. Firefighters could see smoke billowing from the plant at the Flat Rock station, Chief William Vack said.
“When we arrived, it was going pretty good, and you could see smoke about 100 feet in the air,” Chief Vack said afterward. “Once we got our water supplies established, we had it knocked down in about a half hour.”
Where the fire started was only about 100 feet from Vreeland Rd., he said. Heat from the fire penetrated an exterior wall on the north side of the plant, activating a single sprinkler in a newer section of the building, he said. The sprinkler helped quell any fire inside.
“Most of the plant was unaffected,” Chief Vack said. “The fire was near the truck docks. … There was no smoke in the building.”
He said it was standard procedure to evacuate the plant when a fire alarm is activated. The amount of damage was unknown but was not believed to be extensive. Firefighters were on the scene for about two hours.
Three firefighters were treated for heat-related illness after fighting a fire July 6 at the Kellogg plant at 801 Sunshine Road in the Fairfax area of Kansas City, Kan.
Damage to the plant and its product were estimated at $1.5 million, the Kansas City, Kan., Fire Department spokesman said. The building was valued at $60 million before the fire.
There were no injuries to the plant workers when the fire broke out, according to the Fire Department spokesman. The plant, which makes Cheez-Its, was in production at the time of the fire.
The plant is currently closed while it is being cleaned up, according to the Fire Department, and it is estimated to be closed for several days to a week. Health officials will need to inspect it before it reopens.
The plant’s workers were in the process of being evacuated when firefighters arrived, the spokesman said.
The call came in around 9:01 p.m. Wednesday, with the first firefighters arriving about 3 minutes later.
The Fire Department spokesman said the fire started in one of the ovens at the plant that malfunctioned. The plant has four ovens, around 400 feet long, with a conveyor belt through them. The sprinkler system activated during the fire. The fire was near the end of one of the ovens, and the product was burning there, the spokesman said.
The Fire Department spokesman estimated that the firefighters faced temperatures of 120 to 130 degrees inside the building during the fire. It was also hot outdoors.
Reporting on lives and property saved by fire sprinklers
