Firefighters stop equipment fire at Bright Wood’s Culver plant, keep it from spreading

CULVER, Ore. (KTVZ) – Jefferson County firefighters used their 105-foot aerial ladder Tuesday afternoon to reach a fire in equipment at the Bright Wood Corp. plant in Culver and confine it to the area of origin. Investigators soon determined a dust accumulation caused a device to catch fire.

Jefferson County Fire and EMS personnel were dispatched shortly before 2 p.m. to the Culver facility after plant workers called 911, having noticed the top of a blower to one of the chip bins was smoking and showing signs of a fire inside the blower, which leads from the plant into the chip bins, Deputy Chief of Prevention Jared Earnest said.

Fire crews stretched lines and prepared to put out a possible chip bin fire, but soon saw the bulk of the fire was atop the blower tube feeding the bin, Earnest said. So they deployed the aerial ladder to reach the top of the structure, where crews were able to stop the fire’s spread any farther down the blower tube or into the bin.

As a result, minimal damage was stained to the structure, he said, adding that there were no injuries. Officers determined a mechanical device atop the chip bin had accumulated dust and caught fire due to friction crated by the device.

Earnest also offered this safety message: Jefferson County Fire and EMS would like to remind everyone that even though this fire occurred at a large commercial wood processing facility, fires can occur in mechanical devices that produce dust.

A good practice is to follow the manufacturers' recommendation of your mechanical device when cleaning and returning it back to a state of readiness. Devices that can produce dust are woodworking devices, farm equipment, and landscaping equipment. This accumulation of dust can get caught into the moving parts of the equipment and lead to friction and then lead to combustion.