Traffic is back moving on Route 19 after the road was closed due to a fire for about 40 minutes Thursday afternoon. Harmony Fire District Chief Scott Garing observed the situation as he happened to be driving by Harmony Castings:
“I was driving by and I noticed that all the workers were standing outside out front which was odd and then I looked at the building and there was smoke coming out of every door of the building; all of them were open and it was everywhere. So I turned around and came back and asked them is everything ok and they said no, as a matter of fact, there’s a fire in the dust collection unit.”
Workers were attempting to put out the fire themselves by removing filters and debris but the fire kept reigniting. Multiple crews responded to the Perry Highway business in Jackson Township just after 12:15 p.m.
No one was injured. According to Garing, the fire was contained to the dust collection unit.
“It was caused by one of the contractors that was working on the building that cut through a ventilation pipe that’s used for a vacuum into a central dust collection unit and a spark went into the dust collector and ignited the entire dust collector.”
Some equipment was damaged but the business was back up and operating in limited capacity by the time crews cleared the scene.
Written by Ryan Saeler