Burned materials sit outside of Alliance Carpet on Church Street after a three-alarm fire broke out Sunday evening. Amanda Webster — The Register Citizen By Amanda Webster, The Register Citizen
Posted: AUGUST 18, 2015
TORRINGTON, CT
The three-alarm fire at a carpet and flooring factory Sunday night has been ruled an accident, fire officials said.
A forklift driver at Alliance Carpet accidentally backed into flammable material and the heat from the muffler, once in contact with the material, sparked the blaze, Fire Marshal Edward Bascetta said Monday.
The fire broke out around 8:20 p.m. at the factory at 180 Church St., and the fire department arrived on scene just two minutes later. According to Fire Chief Gary Brunoli, the fire was under control by 10:30 p.m. but a “stubborn little fire” remained. The fire was completely under control about an hour after that.
According to Bascetta, the structure of the building was not damaged, just the stock of materials inside. There were no injuries.
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Firefighters from Winsted, Washington, Waterbury, Litchfield, Harwinton, Burrville and Torringford departments were among those on scene assisting.
Several fires have been reported at the location in the past, one of the largest ones in 2009. A juvenile was arrested earlier this year and charged with arson, accused of having started two fires in containers at the site in October last year.
Other youths were accused of deliberately setting a fire in 2001 in a trailer outside the factory.
Fire officials have said that workers at the site extinguish smaller fires regularly. Accidental fires happen sometimes when they grind scrap from foam rubber and use a mix of glue and adhesives, fire officials have said.
Alliance Carpet is owned by Mohawk Carpet Corp., a subsidiary of Mohawk Industries Inc. based in Georgia.Fire Rips Through Torrington Carpet Factory
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Updated at 12:53 PM EDT on Monday, Aug 17, 2015
A three-alarm fire tore through a carpeting factory in Torrington on Sunday night and investigators are trying to determine what started it.
The water flow alarm went off at the Alliance Carpet factory, at 180 Church Street around 8:20 p.m. on Sunday and neighbors reported a strange chemical smell, in addition to the smoke.
Firefighters who responded to the scene saw smoke coming from the building and activated a third alarm because of the size of the building.
About six employees in the building at the time got themselves out and no one was injured, according to Torrington Fire Chief Gary Brunoli.
Crews brought large bails of foam outside to extinguish them.
This was not the first time the building has caught fire. There have been several fires there in the past.
Some have been cases of arson, officials said, but most of the fires there have been accidental and all signs point to that being the cause again last night.
When the company grinds foam rubber used to make its carpets, it's easy to start a fire in the process, officials said.
"We’ve been here many times, not only for alarms but for some fires. The processes that they use in here it happens," Brunoli said. "The guys are familiar with the building and with the amount of smoke and the size of the building and the staffing we have we wanted to make sure we had enough resources in case we had to go into defensive mode."
Even though it was expected to be business as usual on Monday morning, the investigation into what happened is still ongoing.
Firrefighters from Torrington, Harwinton, Winsted, Watertown, Waterbury, Torringford, Drakeville, Burrivills, Bantam and Washington responded and the Red Cross also came to the scene to provide food.