03/23/2006: Fire at Blow-In Insulation Plant
At 1205 hours, the Miller Fire Department was paged to a fire at a blow-in insulation manufacturer. The first real structure fire of the year.
We responded with 2 engines and 1 support vehicle along with a couple of firefighters in the personal vehicles. A total of eight firefighters were on scene. The sheriff, deputy sheriff, a police officer, and the emergency manager also responded (they are members of the fire department too, but they responded in their other capacities).
The bin above a grinding machine was full of partially ground-up insulation, some of which was smoldering. The employees had discharded a couple of fire extinguishers into the bin and put the flames out, but it was still hot.
The employees, working with some of the firefighters, shoveled out the bin and the smoldering insulation was taken outside. The insulation that had recently been run through the grinder was bagged and then taken outside as a precaution.
We were back at the fire hall and ready for the next call by 1315. Nobody was hurt and there was no property damage other than a few pounds of insulation. If the employees hadn't caught the fire early, this could have been ugly.
