Contact: Contact: Battalion Chief James L. Weaver
573-441-6608 - Columbia Fire Department Media Line
573-874-7503 Office (M-F, 8-5)
For Immediate Release:
Bobcat Skid Loader Burns Inside Insulation Manufacturing Facility
On 05/09/2013, members of the Columbia Fire Department were dispatched, at 06:25 am, to a commercial structure fire at 5301 Paris Rd, Johnson Products/Cell Pak. Employees had arrived for work, found the building full of smoke when they opened the doors, and called 911. When crews arrived on the scene they found black smoke coming from the structure.
Further investigation revealed that a Bobcat Skid Loader had burned inside the structure. When the fire was discovered it had almost burned itself out; the tires and some other rubber components were all that was smoldering. Crews moved the Bobcat outside the structure and then used large fans to remove the smoke and haze from the structure.
Assistant Fire Marshal Lisa Todd investigated the fire and determined the fire was accidental in nature and confined to the Bobcat with soot and smoke damage throughout the structure. At the time of this release a damage estimate was unavailable.