ORLEANS –– Ethan Allen Manufacturing employees evacuated the plant in Orleans when a piece of machinery caught fire around 8:30 a.m., Thursday morning. Vice-President of Case Goods Manufacturing Mike Worth identified the machine as a Computer Numerical Control Lathe that caught fire. As of Thursday, Ethan Allen crews were just starting their investigation into what caused the fire in the north end of the machine floor.
Worth said that about 185 people were in the building at the time the fire started. Except for maintenance workers and some office staff, company officials sent the workers home for the day because it was going to be an hour or so before they could blow all clear and with the freezing cold temperature, he did not want to leave them outside for that long.
“We’ll just resume tomorrow,” he said, Thursday afternoon. The fire only affected one person. “Everybody will be back Friday and that person on that machine actually runs another machine too, so it won’t affect anybody.”
Worth said that no product was lost.
Orleans Fire Chief E.J. Rowell said firefighters were called to the plant just across the street from the fire station at 8:32 a.m. for a fire alarm, sprinkler alarm, and pull station activation. Initially, firefighters weren’t aware all fire alert devices were all going off until Rowell started walking toward the building and he could hear the sprinkler alarm. It was then he had a pretty good idea something was going on. Rowell said when he walked through the door there was a medium smoke condition and heavier smoke as firefighters went further into the plant.
“There was a machine that was burning up,” he said. “It had burned up into the ceiling, along to the old timbers and up into the second floor.”
Rowell said that the maintenance department was there using fire extinguishers to put out the fire.
“They did a great job,” he said, of the maintenance department. “The sprinkler system also worked wonderfully to help keep it in that area.”
Worth echoed Rowell’s comment about the quick reaction of the maintenance department and how well the sprinkler system worked.
“The fire was put out quickly,” Worth said. “There were some flames when the fire started. These are CNC Machines.”
Rowell said that the damage to the building is not terrible.
“They’re going to have to do a little bit of carpentry work,” Rowell said of the company. “They’ve got some holes to patch and some floor to rebuild. It could have been a lot worse. It’s rare that they have them quite this size. They have occasional smudge over there but not generally like this one.”
Rowell pointed out the plant is an older building.
“The timbers and stuff that run through there are God knows how old and dry,” he said. “It doesn’t take a lot to get them started.”
Rowell acknowledged it was a good save.
Worth echoed the sentiment that there was no other damage except to that one machine, and they expect it to be fully repaired in the weeks to come. Worth said the plant will be operating again Friday morning.
Crews had the fire under control in approximately two hours and out in about three to three and a half hours. Firefighters cleared the scene at about 1:30 p.m. Thursday.
The Irasburg Fire Department and the City of Newport Fire Department provided mutual aid at the scene. The Orleans Ambulance service treated one Orleans firefighter who got debris in his eye. Rowell was not willing to identify the firefighter except to say he’s a department captain.
Rowell thanked the Orleans Electric Department, as well as the Vermont State Police and the Orleans County Sheriff’s Department for assisting at the scene. He also praised the Newport City Police Department for their dispatching services.
