Following a fire at United Surface Finishing Co., members of the Stark County Hazardous Materials Team were brought in to contain chemicals affected by the blaze. (Produced by Benjamin Duer)
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CantonRep.com / Lori Monsewicz |Firefighters contained a fire at the United Surface Finishing plant at 2202 Gilbert Ave. NE in Canton on Thursday morning.\
Jun 25, 2015 at 12:20 PM
CANTONFirefighters battled an early morning blaze Thursday at a local finishing plant, drawing Stark County’s hazardous materials unit to the scene.
About four or five employees were working in the upper portion of the 12,000-square-foot United Surface Finishing plant when the fire broke out at the other end of the plant around 5:30 a.m., said Lawrence Dalesio, midnight shift supervisor.
Dalesio said he noticed the blaze and called firefighters.
Summoned to what came in as an industrial commercial fire at 2315 Ellis Ave. NE just off Mahoning Road, firefighters arrived to find heavy smoke coming from the south side of the structure with fire in the center of the building, Chief Stephen J. Rich said in a news release later Thursday.
Capt. Carl Jordan, acting battalion chief for the Canton Fire Department, said at the scene earlier Thursday morning that firefighters also learned “there were possibly some hazardous materials inside.”
“So we set up a perimeter (and) applied water to the best of our ability from the outside,” he said. “We did manage to gain entry when absolutely necessary. We contained the fire to probably a 30-by-30 area and sent for HazMat.”
Jordan said the fire was contained to the rear portion of the plant.
No one was injured.
“There was a little structural damage, however, to the area directly over the fire itself. The roof has been compromised.”
Plant workers do chrome- and nickel-plating at the facility and use “a fairly serious product,” said Battalion Chief Thomas Garra, who leads the HazMat Unit.
Jordan said the plant has a large container of material and that firefighters were trying to determine how full it had been prior to the fire.
Garra said the problem exists should nickel combine with 100 percent nitric acid. One of the tanks has released a product and HazMat members suited up to go into the plant and check it out.
Garra said no evacuations had been called for the area.
“The product is contained to the building,” he said.
The fire was long out by then. Firefighters were working to determine the cause.