A fire at Americana in the Salem Westside Industrial Park was contained to a single piece of equipment.
Vice President of Operations Geoffrey Purcell says the fire was discovered around 8:15 Tuesday morning.
“(There was) a minor fire in a dust collector used on one of our machines to collect dust particles,” Purcell said. “We think maybe a motor bearing went out and got hot and dropped a hot spark down on the filter. The fire department responded, and they were awesome. As soon as the fire alarm went off everybody evacuated to our assembly point. The fire department was here quickly, got on it and put out the small fire inside the dust collector.”
Salem Fire Protection District Assistant Chief Bill Fulton explained their operation.
“The Americana employees had put some fire extinguishers on it,” Fulton said. “Then we took a hose line in, started tearing the thing apart and bringing out the filters and extinguishing them out here. It was pretty well self-contained in that dust collector.”
Purcell says the dust collector will be studied to determine if it can be repaired or needs to be replaced.
About 110 employees were working at Americana when the small fire broke out.
Salem firemen received mutual aide assistance from Odin on the scene and the Centralia Fire Protection District stood by at the Salem Fire Station in the event of another fire. The Salem Fire Department sent three engines, an aerial apparatus and a rescue truck. The initial fire call indicated there were flames and the building was filling with smoke.
