Firefighters cope with bad conditions at PA plant fire

People were back at work at the New York Wire Co. Wednesday morning, hours after a fire in the plant’s tower.

Crews were called to the two-alarm blaze at the plant, in the 400 block of East Market Street, around 12:15 a.m., York Fire/Rescue Services Deputy Chief Steven Buffington said. When they arrived, they found the fire pouring from the tower.

Once inside, they had to work through narrow corridors and some falling debris, Buffington said. Three firefighters ran low on oxygen while fighting the fire and had to escape to the roof, he said, where fresh tanks were brought to them.

No firefighters were injured, and all plant workers were safely evacuated.

The fire began in the powder coating system, Buffington said. The pressurized system that applies a coating to the screens made in the plant appeared to then back up, allowing the tower itself to catch fire, he said.

Firefighters contained the blaze before it spread through the building, which spans most of the block.

Crews were still looking for hotspots inside the plant at 2:30 a.m. A few wisps of smoke curled from the square, gray-sided tower that rose above the hulking brick plant.

Jim Bailey stood on the sidewalk and watched firefighters trudge past, carrying axes and oxygen tanks.

“They must be getting worn out,” he said.

“There were flames all the way up to the top,” said Bailey, a loom tech who has worked at the plant for 16 years. “It looked just like a candle.”

Fire crews are

usually called to the plant a few times a year for the same system in the tower, Buffington said.

“Most times, their fire suppression system knocks it down and we just wind up clearing smoke,” he said. “This time, the fire was just too aggressive, or I don’t know if the fire suppression system activated.

West Coast 911 firefighting news source - York Daily Record