A four-alarm fire Tuesday night at the Huhtamaki paper factory in Waterville that drew responses from more than eight surrounding towns was likely caused by a dryer malfunction and was ruled an accident by the state fire marshal’s office.
Damage is estimated to exceed $1 million, according to a Wednesday morning Facebook post by Waterville Fire and Rescue.
“The fire was determined to be accidental, so there is no criminal case,” Sgt. Joel Davis of the fire marshal’s office said. “We were there last night and this morning. We were called in because a firefighter was injured.”
The name of a Fairfield firefighter who was injured while battling the blaze has not been revealed, but Davis said he was released from the hospital with injuries that were not life-threatening.
Waterville fire chief Shawn Esler said the fire, at 241 College Ave., was in the Fairfield portion of the factory, not in Waterville. The factory stretches about a mile across both towns, he said.
The first call for the fire came in at 5:26 p.m. Tuesday, and crews were on the scene until almost 2:30 a.m. Wednesday.
“It was very cold. The temperatures were in the single digits,” Esler said. “Anyone involved in fighting the fire was pretty much frozen solid when they came out of the building.”
He said Johnny’s Selected Seeds, which has offices across the street from the fire, opened its doors so firefighters could warm themselves.
Esler said the collaboration among the eight-plus fire departments that responded was “phenomenal.” He also praised Huhtamaki for having a fire plan in place.
“Huhtamaki has a great safety plan in place, so we were able to hand over the building to them this morning,” he said.
Huhtamaki had a fire last December that was quickly extinguished. Esler said the fire department is called on occasion to handle fires at the plant.
“Fires aren’t uncommon in that facility, but they aren’t frequent either,” he said. “We probably go there about a half dozen times a year or more. But Huhtamaki also puts out more fires than they call us for.”
“Because the paper-making process requires them to have dryers, and dryers are hot, there are some fires when paper plates run through them,” he said.
Huhtamaki spokesman Wess Hudelson said Tuesday night that all employees at the factory, which makes compostable paper plates, had escaped safely. He did not know how many workers were in the factory at the time the fire broke out.
“This morning we have employees working to clean up the facility and assess the damage,” he wrote in an email Wednesday morning. “We will assess the impact to the business in the coming days.”