ENFIELD: A fire in a hopper at Ledwidge Lumber on June 18 was quickly brought under control by firefighters with assistance from employees.
Firefighters from Enfield; Elmsdale with a tanker and an engine; a tanker from Lantz; and tankers from Station 42 Wellington; Station 43 Grand Lake; and Station 40 Dutch Settlement; and an engine from Station 45 Fall River responded to the call at 4:31 p.m. There were about 40 firefighters on scene from the seven departments.
No one was injured in the fire.
Todd Pepperdine, the fire chief with Enfield Fire and Incident Command at the call, said upon arrival firefighters saw smoke coming from the top of the hopper.
“The fire was around the door at the bottom of the hopper – we extinguished the fire at the door and then realized that the fire was at the top of the shavings inside the hopper.,” said Pepperdine. “Once we had water supply established with an onsite hydrant to the aerial, we released most of the tankers.
“Ledwidge lumber staff were able to pull the shavings out and empty the hopper. This is what took most of the time. Once the hopper was emptied we noticed some hot spots at the top of the hopper which we were able to extinguish with hand lines and the aerial.”
He said an EHS unit was on scene while crews were operating crews in the bucket of the aerial, but they did not attend to anyone.
Pepperdine said it did not take long to get the fire under control.
“The only visible flame upon arrival was at the door at the bottom of the hopper,” he said. “The hopper has sprinklers installed which were spraying water upon arrival which would have extinguished most of the fire inside the hopper.
“Once the fire was extinguished at the door we had to wait until the hopper was emptied to ensure the fire was out inside.”
The cause of the fire is believed to have been spontaneous combustion, spokeswoman Cassie Turple from the Old Post Road company said.
