A decontamination team scrubs a firefighter outside a five alarm blaze in Central Falls. Photo by Steve Klamkin, WPRO News.
By Steve Klamkin and the WPRO Newsroom
Firefighters from more than a dozen communities worked to extinguish a five-alarm fire at a Central Falls mill building that left at least two firefighters injured Monday afternoon.
Central Falls Fire Chief Robert Bradley said the blaze, at a three-storm brick mill building at 59 Foundry Street, began in a paint-mixing process, and at least one highly toxic chemical, toluene, was involved.
“There has been members from several departments that have been transported to the hospital, from heat exhaustion,” Chief Bradley said.
“It’s just been an extremely hot day outside, and inside, it just made it all the worse, we could not get it to go out.”
Because there were other chemicals involved in the fire, chemical retardants were used extinguish the flames, and firefighters had to be scrubbed down after they exited the building.
“Firefighters coming out were just absolutely exhausted. We actually had to help some down the stairs, and get them over to get their gear decontaminated.”
Bradley said the crews will have to throw away a lot of equipment they used to battle the blaze.
“It all has to be replaced due to the mix of chemicals and polymers there were involved with, which is going to be a very expensive proposition for many of the departments,” Chief Bradley siad.
Medical crews were called from nearby Memorial Hospital in Pawtucket as a precaution.
“Concern with chemical exposure is that you don’t want to contaminate the entire operating room,” said Victoria Miller, a physician’s assistant from Memorial Hospital at the scene of the blaze along with others from Memorial Hospital.
“We can triage here on site and determine who really needs to be tranpsorted and keep the rest for decontamination,” she said.
More photos from the scene of Monday afternoon’s 5-alarm mill fire in Central Falls
Photos by Steve Klamkin WPRO News
Outside the burning mill building in Central Falls. Photo by Steve Klamkin, WPRO News.
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Steve Klamkin
