Fire destroys trailers at Amherst business
Investigators are looking into a fire Monday evening at Gordon Food Services in the Amherst and Area Industrial Park.
Amherst firefighters were called to the distribution centre at 38 Industrial Park Dr. to put out a fire that destroyed three 16-metre-long trailers, a half-ton pickup, a smaller trailer and damaged three other transport trailers.
“When we arrived, the trailers were fully engulfed in flames,” Amherst fire chief Greg Jones said.
The initial call was of a singlevehicle fire, but within the same minute it was updated to report several vehicles on fire. Dense dark smoke, which billowed high into the sky, could be seen at least a kilometre away from the scene.
As the firefighters fought the blaze, the smoke turned greyish and orange. Flames could also be seen between the trailers.
Four fire trucks and several dozen firefighters responded to the blaze, as did members of the Amherst Police Department. Traffic was directed away from the scene.
As firefighters battled the blaze, three of the damaged trailers were hauled a short distance away from the burning units by a driver of a shunt vehicle.
“It could’ve been a lot worse,” Jones said. “Some workers there were able to move other trailers away from those that were burning and prevented the fire from spreading.”
Jones said the cause of the fire is still being determined, but the initial investigation indicated a contractor hired by Gordon Food Service to clean the trailers with a pressure washer was inside one of the trailers cleaning it when the tractor driver saw flames coming from a small trailer that contained the pressure washer. The pressure-washer trailer was being towed by the pickup.
The tractor driver immediately informed the contractor of the situation, but the flames quickly spread to the adjacent trailers. By the time the contractor got back to his own vehicle, the fire was be-- yond what a fire extinguisher could handle.
Firefighters doused the fire quickly and departed the scene shortly after 9 p.m.