Centrelea pellet plant fire could have been worse; business to re-open
An early morning fire March 21 at a fuel pellet and fire log plant at the old Britex building could have been a lot worse.
Carl Pineo arrived at work at the plant just west of Bridgetown at about 8:15 a.m. to smoke and flame and called the fire department.
“I was supposed to be here by 8 but I was late today,” said Pineo at the scene. “I seen it coming in. I seen smoke and I knew there was something funny going on,” he said.
Employee Eben Bruce arrived about 8:30 a.m.
“I unlocked the door because he (Pineo) said he left the door locked,” said Bruce. “I unlocked the door so the when the fire department got here they could walk right in. I kind of just opened the door and grabbed propane tanks that were right by the door. The fire was 30 feet from the door. We kind of just stayed out of the building.”
Later, firefighters hauled out a third forklift propane tank.
Bruce said black smoke was rolling out of the roof and at one point five-foot flames accompanied it. Inside he could see several pallets of fire logs in flames. Bruce figured the fire had been burning for at least an hour and Pineo thought it was more like two-anda-half hours.
Fire Logs
The processing plant takes up 30,000 square feet in the northwest corner of the 150,000-squarefoot building and is owned by West Nova Agro Commodities Ltd in Lawrencetown.
General manager Jonathan Mcclelland said the production process involves heat and as part of their risk management process, pallets of fire logs are isolated for a day or two until they cool down. Last Tuesday morning it paid off big-time. While there was smoke and water damage, the fire was contained to those few pallets of fire logs that had been produced the day before.
West Nova Agro board member John Ray Lawrence also credited firefighters for saving the business.
“The incredibly quick response time of the Bridgetown firemen and the other four departments saved both the building and our production equipment,” said Lawrence, adding that once they know the extent of any damage beyond loss of inventory, he hopes the plant will to be back in production soon.
Firefighters
Firefighters from Nictaux to Annapolis Royal were on the scene shortly after 8:30 a.m. with Bridgetown taking the lead. Chief Randy Sheridan knew the building and his big concern was the metal roof trusses that he said don’t like a lot of heat.
He said when firefighters arrived there was smoke coming from the roof area, from some of the ventilation vents, and smoke coming out around the eves and doors. He didn’t see any flames at that point.
Lawrencetown’s aerial ladder truck was set up closest to the fire and sprayed water from above. When they got set up they discovered flame was back out through the roof. Firefighters set up a tanker relay system and filled collapsible tanks with water from a dry hydrant in nearby Tupperville.
Sheridan said firefighters were able to get in the building right away and found the fire probably 35 feet inside the door and it was under control by 9:30 a.m. Firefighters remained on the scene until about 3 p.m.
Cleanup
Cleanup is the first step, said Mcclelland.
“I’ve already been talking to the insurance company,” he said as he surveyed the damage. “We’ll just figure out what damages occurred. It’s not significant compared to what it could be. None of the production equipment has been damaged. It was more product in the shipping department where the fire was.”
The plant employs three people on a full-time basis and some part-time.
“We were in the process of hiring more,” said Mcclelland.
He also praised firefighters and noted that last year firefighters had visited the plant to do a site walk-through so they knew the layout of the building and knew where potential fire hazards were.
Nova Scotia Power and the Department of Transportation were also at the scene early on, as where the RCMP.