Around 10:30 am Monday morning on March 18th, I heard Bourbon Fire Department dispatched to a commercial dryer on fire inside the building at Paramount Headwear in Bourbon. Chief Daniel Whatley later told me that he saw heavy black smoke in the area of Paramount as he was responding to the call…the call was then re-dispatched as a Commercial Structure Fire and Sullivan`s Pumper 854 and Ladder 852 added to the call, along with Cuba Fire Department…I drove up there, around to the rear of the building, where I found 854 and Bourbon`s lead pumper nosed into the back loading bay of the building….
….fire crews inside attacking a commercial screen printing dryer that overheated and caught fire…heavy smoke was reportedly showing when Bourbon crews arrived….as I pulled up, Ladder 852 operator Kyle Robertson began raising the ladder so that firefighters could access the roof and check the vents above the fire area….
Bourbon Firefighter Wagner climbed up to the roof to check and make sure no fire had extended from the dryer on fire into the roofline of the building…
Cuba Fire Department arrived shortly after I did…Corey Martin was driving and operating Pumper 854 and helped Bourbon crews set up positive pressure ventilation fans on the loading dock of the building to ventilate the smoke and fumes from the working area.
Bourbon firefighters quickly responded and knocked down the majority of the fire by the time Sullivan crews arrived, and with all of the ventilation fans set up at the back of the building, employees were soon able to return to work inside the building, the one dryer taken out of service and maintenance crews cleaning up the mess.