Fire Forces Evacuation of 85 Golf Club Foundry Workers

A Newbury Park foundry that makes golf clubs burst into flames Tuesday, forcing the evacuation of 85 workers and slightly injuring three firefighters, authorities said.

The fire, which spread from a boiling vat of paraffin, blew out 10 second-story windows at the Wilson Sporting Goods plant at 810 Lawrence Drive, allowing the cold wind to fan the flames throughout the east end of the second floor, authorities said.

Structural damage was estimated at $200,000.

“I guess if I could be happy with anything, it’s the way the employees handled the evacuation,” said plant manager Greg Hill, standing with several workers in front of the bone-white, 44,000-square-foot structure.

The three-alarm blaze, which started about 6:40 a.m., was contained in an hour but continued to flare up four hours later because of winds that gusted up to 30 m.p.h., said spokeswoman Sandi Wells of the Ventura County Fire Department.

Ten fire companies, in addition to two ladder-truck companies and two hazardous materials teams, responded to the fire in the light industrial district off Rancho Conejo Boulevard, north of the Ventura Freeway.

Firefighter O.J. Hunt, whose crew gingerly cut holes in the “tar and mop” roof to release 25-foot plumes of fire and heat, collapsed on the grass across the street from the blaze. Hunt was treated for heat exhaustion and released from St. John’s Pleasant Valley Hospital in Camarillo.

“We had several wind changes, and he had some smoke exposure from that,” said Capt. Ron Topolinski, whose crew navigated the lattice-work of beams that form the ribs of the roof.

Two other firefighters were treated at the scene, one for a twisted ankle and another for minor facial abrasions.

“It was amazing,” Wells said of the evacuation. “The whole company should be complimented for their practicing fire (drills). . . . Sometimes we have whole families of just a few people and they aren’t sure everybody is out, and here we have a company that got all their people out, all 85 of them, all accounted for.”

This cut the risks to firefighters, she added, because they did not have to plunge into the building in search of missing people.

Because of the chemicals used in the foundry, two hazardous materials teams spent three hours combing the warehouse-like structure for toxic fumes. About 65 firefighters later used three wood-and-plastic troughs to decontaminate their boots and pants, dousing them with water.

Hill, whose plant casts up to 60,000 irons and metal woods weekly, said the fire began in a 5,000-square-foot area where wax is removed from the molds for the clubs.

Only about a quarter of the building’s interior--about 10,000 square feet--was burned, Wells said. She did not expect a damage estimate for the contents of the plant until today.

Responding to an employee’s report of smoke, mechanic Frank Torres rushed to the six-worker “finishing cell,” grabbed a fire extinguisher and tried to douse the flames. Fellow mechanic Barry Schlosberg joined him. When their efforts failed, one of them hit the fire alarm and the employees filed out within minutes, Hill said.

Scott Langmack, vice president of Wilson’s golf club group in Chicago, said work could resume at the plant as early as late next week.

The golf club foundry, the only one owned and operated by the giant sporting goods manufacturer, ships its unfinished steel clubs to Tullahoma, Tenn., where they are polished, painted, shafted and gripped, Hill said.

The production stoppage should not adversely affect the firm’s business, he added, because the fire did not damage the area where the bulk of the work is done and because cold weather typically slows demands for golf clubs this time of year.