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Fire ignites in Vindicator production building
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Cleanup begins in The Vindicator’s press room after an air handling unit caught fire shortly after 2 p.m. Tuesday. Although the building’s sprinkler system quickly extinguished the fire, crews worked to clear the room of smoke and water in time to print today’s newspaper.
By EMMALEE C. TORISK
YOUNGSTOWN
An air-handling unit in The Vindicator’s press room caught fire shortly after 2 p.m. Tuesday.
The Youngstown Fire Department responded within minutes, but the majority of the fire had already been extinguished by the building’s sprinkler system, said Youngstown Fire Chief John O’Neill.
The fire was contained to a small area of the press room. No one was injured, and nearly all company operations returned to normal after an interruption of about an hour.
“The good things are no one was injured, we will print on time and the alarm and sprinkler systems worked as planned. The Youngstown Fire Department was a huge help and we heartily thank them,” said Mark A. Brown, general manager.
Upon their arrival, firefighters turned off the sprinklers, then began to clear out smoke and water from the two-story press facility.
Staff evacuated the building when the fire alarms sounded.
The firefighters’ priority was to have the sprinkler heads replaced, and to get the system “back up and running,” O’Neill said.
Workers had been replacing belts on the air-handling unit when sparks started the fire.
Joe Markulin, facilities engineer and manager, estimated that cleanup would take a day or two.
“That side [of the room] filled with smoke, alarms went off and everybody jumped into action,” Markulin said. “We’re running fans to blow smoke out of the room and getting water pumped out of the basement.”
Some paper had been damaged by water from the sprinklers, but workers were able to move most of it out of the way just in time, said Rick Wineman, press room foreman.