Alcoa Employee Injured In Accident That Sparked Fire Posted: Feb 28, 2017 11:54 AM EST Updated Feb 28, 2017 11:54 AM EST
An Alcoa employee was taken to the hospital following a fire Monday night at the company's Massena plant.
A statement from the company says the unidentified employee was burned by an electrical arc, which caused a power outage in parts of the plant.
Company officials say the outage "contributed to a fire in the facility’s bake furnace" and the Massena Fire Department put the fire out around 9 p.m.
There were no other injuries, officials say, and the plant’s molten metal production was unaffected.
Officials say they are investigating.
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MASSENA, NY — Alcoa officials say their investigation into a Monday evening fire at the Massena West plant is ongoing, but there were no injuries resulting from the fire other than the burned worker.
“An employee at Massena Operations was transported to a local hospital on Monday evening after an electrical arc resulted in burns. An ensuing power outage in some areas of the plant contributed to a fire in the facility’s bake furnace and the local fire department extinguished the fire around 9 p.m. While the investigation is ongoing, we can confirm that no one was injured from the fire, and the plant’s molten metal production is unaffected,” officials said in emailed statement.
The Massena, Louisville, Helena and Hogansburg Akwesasne fire departments, along with the Massena Rescue Squad, were dispatched to the fire around 9 p.m. and could be seen leaving the plant around 10:15 p.m.
Massena Fire Chief Bill Kearns said the plant’s emergency response teams were already on the scene.
“We were called in as mutual aid to their fire brigade. They had it pretty much handled. They called us in for backup and precautionary measures. We pretty much just set up precautionary things,” he said.
The other departments were called in “just in case we needed them,” Mr. Kearns said.