The Huntingburg Volunteer Fire Department was called Saturday morning to the report of a fire in OFS Plant No. 18’s sawdust storage facility.
Department spokesman John C. Smith said, given a similar incident eight years ago, he braced for the worst and quickly called for manpower assistance from the Holland Volunteer Fire Department.
On July 6, 2007, a similar fire in the then-60-by-120 sawdust storage building behind the plant kept firefighters busy for 14 hours, Smith said. But, he added, that building has been replaced by a new one with a sprinkler system. And it was that sprinkler system that curtailed damage after Saturday’s 8:58 a.m. call by activating and extinguishing the main body of the fire, Smith said.
The fire’s cause was attributed to a mechanical failure in an auger system used to move sawdust into the building, according to Smith.
Large front-end loaders supplied by Brewer Farms Inc., Huntingburg, were used to take sawdust out of the building so firefighters could access the area where the fire started.
Smith said there was no appreciable damage to the building.
Huntingburg’s department was on the scene with four trucks and 13 firefighters for five hours. Holland’s department responded with 10 firefighters. While four worked alongside Huntingburg firefighters for the duration, Smith said, others were released throughout the morning as conditions allowed.
OFS personnel assisted with sawdust removal and a Memorial Hospital Emergency Medical Services ambulance was on standby at the scene. Members of the Huntingburg Volunteer Fire Department Auxiliary were on hand to provide food and drinks for those extinguishing the smoldering sawdust.
Responding to a smoke call at LuK Inc., Wooster City Firefighters arrived at the business Sunday morning to find a fire inside a welding machine. Firefighters were called to the business, located at 3401 Old Airport Road, at 8:44 a.m. They arrived within minutes and remained on scene for more than an hour containing the fire, however much of the work of extinguishing the fire was accomplished through an internal sprinkler system, said Lt. Joe Linz.
Firefighters worked with LuK maintenance workers, who disassembled the machine, and attacked the fire, using a combination of fire extinguishers, water and Chimfex flares, which emit carbon dioxide, according to Capt. Tom Graf.
While there were employees working at the business at the time, the fire was contained to the machine, and there was no substantial interruption to operations, said Graf, noting there were no injuries. Loss is estimated at $1,000, he said, noting the fire is believed to have been the result of normal procedures.
City firefighters responded to the fire at around 11:30 a.m. on Thursday at CKF Inc. on Production Way, said City Fire Chief Rory Thompson. In total, eight engines, several other vehicles, and 52 firefighters were deployed to deal with the fire. The actual fire didn’t do too much damage to the building. “We were fortunate because the sprinkler system really held the fire in check for us,” said Thompson.
“There was a considerable amount of smoke,” he said of the fire near Fraser Highway. The fire was in the back of the large industrial building, and the complexity and size of the fire quickly led the City to go to three alarms. That brought in some Township crews to lend a hand.
However, the building was full of pallets of thousands of cardboard egg cartons. The fire had gotten into the cartons and the pallets. Between the fire and the water, the cartons were destroyed, and the pallets collapsed, leaving piles of debris five to six feet high.
Firefighters had to fight their way through the mess to lay hose lines and get at the last remnants of the fire. Two firefighters were hospitalized, with a City firefighter falling and injuring his shoulder, and a Township firefighter who hurt his knee.
Firefighters brought a lot of bottled water for crews and had to work in shifts, taking breaks to hydrate after fighting the fire on a day when temperatures hit the high 20s. “Pretty tired, that’s for sure,” Thompson said of how the crews felt after the fire was out.
Fire crews didn’t leave the scene until 4 a.m. on Friday. Investigators were looking through the scene Friday to try to determine the cause. City firefighters have had training with what are called “large box” fires, and they recently did a command and control training exercise in concert with the Langley Township firefighters. Township and City firefighters frequently work together on larger fires or cover for one another when crews are very busy.
The fire started about 10 a.m. in a rack storage area at the rear of the Colfax Furniture and Mattress store at 801 Silas Creek Parkway, said Battalion Chief Jeff Henley of the Winston-Salem Fire Department. No one was injured. The building’s sprinkler system helped contain the fire, Henley said. It took 31 firefighters about 30 minutes to put out the fire.
The store’s employees and its customers left the store safely after the fire began, Henley said. Investigators are trying to determine how the fire started, Henley said. He didn’t have an estimate of how much damage the fire caused.
The store’s warehouse manager first heard a muffled explosion or some type of loud noise shortly after the store opened at 10 a.m., said Jackson Braswell, the store’s manager. That employee then saw a rug burning, Braswell said. The sprinkler system was activated, and someone called 911.
“The most important thing is that everyone got out safe,” Braswell said. “The sprinklers did their job.” Braswell didn’t immediately know how soon the store will reopen. “We will be back up and running as soon as we can,” Braswell said.
Reporting on lives and property saved by fire sprinklers
