Firefighters contain blaze at dog food plant
By John Joyce
Published in News on October 21, 2014 1:46 PM
jjoyce@newsargus.com
A fire at a dog food processing plant shut down traffic on North William Street for more than an hour Monday.
The Goldsboro Fire Department has responded to the same location at least half a dozen times within the last several weeks, Fire Marshal Capt. John Morton said.
The call came in at 12:15 p.m. as a structure fire at 2313 N. William St. The business name is listed as the Packaging Corp. of America.
Fire crews had the fire contained within half an hour, and remained on scene until after 2 p.m., clearing smoke out of the building. Damage to materials was estimated at $1,000, but no structural damage was reported. No one was injured.
Morton said he met with plant officials later in the day and they agreed to voluntarily cease operations until the problem that has been causing the fires can be fixed.
"The bottom line is they can't keep having fires out there," Morton said.
"And I told them that," he added.
The trouble is it is a single piece of equipment causing the issues, but shutting it down will certainly impact the business overall, Morton said.
"Obviously they can't operate without it," he said.
The company dehydrates sweet potatoes as part of the process of manufacturing dog food -- the rest of which is completed somewhere else -- but it is the dryer that is catching fire," Morton said.
"There are foreign particulate getting in there and heating up," he said.
A filtration system and possibly a fire suppression system might have to be installed inside the dryer, he said.
The building is owned by the Lansing Trade Group LLC., of Goldsboro.
An office administrator speaking on behalf of the facility manager said no one was available to talk about the fires.