Firefighters prepared for blaze at Maine chemical plant

The Portland Press Herald (Maine)

GORHAM, Maine — Fire officials say it could be a couple of days before Southern Maine Industries can resume operating, because of a fire Sunday that drew several fire departments and the regional hazardous-materials response team.

Firefighters and hazardous-materials specialists were called to the fire at the metal plating facility in the Gorham Industrial Park Sunday afternoon. The business uses a variety of chemicals in its processes that can be dangerous when mixed.

The blaze at 45 Hutcherson Drive was reported just before 4 p.m., after it was discovered by an office worker, the only person in the building at the time, said Gorham Fire Chief Robert Lefebvre.

''When you get a situation like this, you can't hurry,'' Lefebvre said, explaining how firefighters had to assess what chemicals were in the building and what precautions needed to be taken before they entered. ''The real problems exist if you hurry and overlook a procedure and miss something.''

Nobody was injured, he said.

The fire department was familiar with the business because it had planned for the possibility of a fire there and had lists of the chemicals on the site, he said.

The chemicals used at the business include sodium cyanide, copper cyanide, sodium hydroxide and muriatic acid, Lefebvre said. Most of the chemicals were diluted and did not pose a serious hazard, but firefighters had to be wary of the chemicals mixing, or reacting with water.

The Presumpscot Valley Hazardous Materials Team, with members from Windham, Standish, Westbrook, Scarborough and Gorham, was called in and tested the smoke outside the building for acid, then tested the water pooling just inside the door from the sprinkler system, which kept the fire from spreading.

Once the location of the fire was determined, fire commanders consulted with the employees to determine that it was safe to attack the fire with a dry chemical extinguisher. The fire was put out quickly.

The cause of the fire will be determined today, but it appears one of the vats that metal parts are submerged in ran dry and was ignited by a heating element, Lefebvre said.

That fire then spread to four other vats, he said.