I was taking it easy on Sunday, September 8th about noon, when the tones dropped for Sullivan Fire Department, toning them out for a commercial structure fire at Sullivan Precision Metal on Franklin Street. I drove north on Elmont Road and turned up Dunsford Drive to come in the back way, observing light brown smoke along the rear wall of the building as I drove up on the factory building. This factory sits underneath one of Sullivan`s water towers on the north side of town….
Sullivan Fire Department arrived soon after in Pumper 854….
Video 237 Comm Structure Fire Sullivan Precision Metal Finishing 2019-0908
I was still near the back of the building when Jim Bartle, Sullivan Independent News Editor, arrived and I told him what I knew about the fire so far…the smoke had a strong electrical odor, but no one at that time was sure what was burning inside the building as crews were just starting to enter the east side of the building near the loading bay, where additional crews were beginning to arrive as we watched…
…here you see Pumper 814 arriving, hooking to the hydrant across the street from the building and preparing to lay a supply line in to Pumper 854….Ray Enloe coordinated with incoming crews outside the building while his Captain and crew operated inside the building…
Video 235 Comm Structure Fire Sullivan Prec Metal Finishing 2019-0908
Bourbon Fire Department arrived soon after and were directed to the back of the building, under the water tower…
…and then Ladder 852 arrived…
…and then the interior crew came out for additional bottles of air….
St Clair Fire Department arrived next with their Ladder Truck and were directed by Ray to the rear of the building as well…
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By this time, crews were under the impression that this may be some type of boiler fire near the back of the building…shortly after St Clair arrived, command was passed to Ray outside the building….Ray had Bourbon and St Clair position at the rear of the building to anchor that side in case fire breached the back wall…
Joe Thurmond arrived soon and went inside the building with firefighters to check on a transformer near the rear of the building as well…
…and then Joe came out of the building to update Ray on the fire inside…
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..and more crews exited the building…here Jim Grimm and his crew exit the building to replace their air bottles….
…and then re-enter the building once again…
…soon after, additional crews arrived from Union and Beaufort-Leslie Fire Districts…
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…soon after their arrival, interior crews located the source of the fire and knocked it down. Some serious ventilation work happened afterward as the entire building was filled with the obnoxious odor brown smoke, that required air masks worn and several positive pressure ventilation fans set up to air out the building, restoring visibility and safe conditions inside the building for workers as well as firefighters.
As it was, turned out to be an electrical transfomer inside the building that caught fire, which explained the odor of the smoke. Job well done by all who responded !!