Fire forces evacuation at factory
By JOE L. HUGHES II Ledger Staff Writer joe@gaffneyledger.com

Ledger photo / TIM GULLA Employees at the Wellstone Mills plant in Gaffney gather outside the building Friday after a smoldering fire forced the facility to be evacuated. It took firefighters three hours to deal with the incident because it was very difficult to access the area where the blaze originated.

A sign outside the Wellstone Mills plant in Gaffney stated it had been 29 days since the factory's last reportable incident.

That number will change after Cherokee County firefighters responded to a call regarding a smoldering fire at the plant.

Dozens of Wellstone Mills employees were forced to evacuate the building while more than 35 firefighters from Gaffney, Grassy Pond, Macedonia, Buffalo, Cherokee Creek and other volunteer fire departments responded to the call Friday. Gaffney Fire Chief Nathan Ellis attributed the fire to an electronic malfunction within a waste collection system underneath the facility's work area.

"A machine controlling the plant's lint collection system had some type of problem, with one of its parts burning out," Ellis said. "The malfunction occurred in an area where a lot of lint was present, causing it to smolder."

Although there were no visible signs of smoke or flames on the building's exterior, it took firefighters close to three hours to make sure the area was safe. Crews were forced to work through ductwork channels underneath the work area to get to the source of the problem.

"Fires like this are time consuming and labor intensive," Ellis said. "By the number of people on the scene it would seem that this was a big fire. Its location was the real issue, making us have to use several air packs and causing the high volume of manpower."

Headquartered in Greenville, Wellstone Mills is a maker of yarns, textiles and apparel. The Gaffney plant is one of 10 owned by the company.

Ellis said no one was injured and estimates that very little damage was done to the plant.

"The biggest loss for the factory was probably production time due to the fire and having to clean up afterwards," Ellis said.