Fire at Foam-Rubber Plant Causes an Estimated $50,000 in Damage

Damage to a foam-rubber manufacturing plant was estimated at $50,000 Tuesday, the morning after a stubborn fire forced the evacuation of 250 workers from neighboring businesses, officials said.

About 8:40 p.m. Monday, firefighters responded to Future Foam Inc., 1050 S. State College Blvd. A fire had spontaneously broken out in the 4-by-4-by-8-foot foam blocks the company makes, Fire Chief Stephen P. Magliocco said.

The three-alarm blaze brought about 60 firefighters from Fullerton, Anaheim, Brea, Orange and Orange County, and affected about one-quarter of the 500,000-square-foot warehouse, Magliocco said.

A security guard at the company was treated for smoke inhalation, officials said. About 250 workers from the neighboring Ingram Micro plant were evacuated, said Fullerton spokeswoman Sylvia Palmer.

Magliocco said the scene was a familiar one to firefighters; they had been to Future Foam six months earlier for another fire in the foam blocks. Just after the foam blocks are made, residual heat from the process occasionally reacts with chemicals in the blocks to start them smoldering in their centers, Palmer said.

The factory’s sprinklers helped keep the latest fire in check, Magliocco said, and in fact rivers of water poured from doorways around the factory and down the street. But to finish off the blaze, firefighters dragged the blocks outside, cut them open and doused them with extinguishing foam, he said.