Workers Evacuated in Ohio Plant Blaze

BEAVERCREEK, Ohio --

Several dozen third shift workers got an unexpected day off when fire forced them to evacuate their building at the Elano Corporation in Beavercreek.

The fire happened just after midnight at the company's Plant Four on Heller Road.

Firefighters said smoke and fire alarms went off and the building's automatic sprinklers also activated.

They said when they arrived about forty workers were already outside and a safety feature had already shut down all electricity to the part of the building affected and only emergency lighting remained on.

Beavercreek firefighters said they discovered fire in one of two production furnaces towards the rear of the building and managed to quickly put those flames out. They said those furnaces are used to burn wax off aircraft parts the company makes. Investigators aren't sure why the fire got out of control but say the damage was limited to the area around the one furnace. However, the entire building had light to moderate smoke damage.

Firefighters say the forty or so third shift workers in that part of the plant were sent home around 1 a.m. Investigators returned to the plant about 7 a.m. and said that the company called in contractors to ensure that the sprinkler system was back in working order after the initial deployment. They said it is back on-line and that the company is once again fully protected against fire.

They said Elano officials will determine how fast they can resume full production and that would depend on how extensive the damage is to the affected furnace and how fast it can be fixed.

Elano Manufacturing makes internal parts for jet aircraft engines for General Electric.

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