LOCAL : La Habra Plant Fire Contained
Fire crews today quickly contained a blaze at a La Habra plant that manufactures shower units, averting what officials said could have been a “very hazardous situation.”
The incident occurred about 5:40 a.m at the Hess Co. plant on 160 Foundation Drive when chemicals being mixed by an employee “reached a thermal condition and erupted into a fire,” La Habra Fire Battalion Chief Mike McGroarty said.
Flames were sucked into the ventilation system, and chemical residue on the walls of the smoke stacks also caught fire, McGroarty said. Flames shot from the stacks 20 feet into air, he said.
The plant was equipped with a sprinkler system that helped firefighters put out the blaze within 20 minutes, McGroarty said.
“Without the sprinklers the whole building could have been lost. With the type of chemicals there, it could have been a very hazardous situation,” McGroarty said.
A cleanup crew employed by the company, which makes fiberglass shower units, mopped up the contaminated water after the fire was put out, he said.
No one was injured and the chemicals have been contained and do not pose a threat, McGroarty said.
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