On January 20 during the overnight shift at Mount Vernon Continental factory, a fire broke loose.  The fire took place when one of the A.C. units broke down and caught fire. Robert Beal, chief of the Jefferson Fire Protection District, said his crews got the call around 10:48 p.m. Sunday.

“When the (firefighters) came out, I questioned them a bit and they said one A/C unit was completely destroyed,” Beal said. “Another one, when they got up top, they had to fight that fire. And they also had a vent motor on fire.”

Luckily the staff at the factory are trained to fight fires until help arrives which is exactly what they did! “We were lucky. If it wasn’t for the General Tire crew, fighting the fire, keeping it down until we got there, it would’ve been a lot worse,” Beal said. “We would’ve been there a lot longer.” The staff has to be careful with fires, because the mixing room contains a lot of cobalt black which is a highly flammable substance used in the manufacturing of tires. If the fire would have reached the supply of cobalt, the whole plant could have gone up in flames.

Luckily, nobody was seriously injured. Only two employees were taken by ambulance to be treated for their moderate injuries, and another employee was treated on sight for smoke ventilation.