EASTHAMPTON — No one was seriously hurt by a welding fire that started just after 9 p.m. Thursday at the Yankee Hill Machine Co., a firearms and accessories manufacturer at 412 Main St., which smoked employees out of the building.
Easthampton Fire responded to reports of a structure fire and employees evacuating the building. Chief Christopher Norris told the Gazette the fire was contained to two welding machines, specifically the spark arrester boxes which ignited. Northampton and Southampton provided mutual aid, evaluating two employees for minor smoke inhalation.
“A spark arrester box is supposed to eliminate the potential and mitigate fires in these types of machines,” Norris said. “We had a similar call at the same facility about a year ago for the same exact occurrence.”
Luckily, Norris said employees of the company acted promptly, extinguishing the first spark arrester box and carting it outside. Firefighters found the second spark arrester box smoking inside the building and removed it.
Norris said the filters of spark arrester boxes burn heavily, creating a thick layer of smoke.
“Because it’s actually carbon byproduct that’s burning, it created a huge smoke layer that filled the entire building,” Norris said. “The employees were fantastic — they followed their safety plan and utilized their extinguishers as planned.”
Norris said firefighters and the employees used large shop fans to ventilate the building and checked any affected equipment with thermal imaging equipment, finding that there was no more fire risk.
The Easthampton Fire Department said in a statement that portable fire extinguishers can be an important first line of defense for a small fire, but employees should only attempt to extinguish when it is safe and should always activate the building’s emergency notification system.
“This business was well prepared and should be commended for their safety plans and the actions taken by their employees,” the statement said.
