UPDATE: No injuries reported after ANOTHER food plant fire
BELMONT, Wis. (WSAW) – Emergency staff from several fire departments responded to a fire at Festive Foods in the town of Belmont. Many were at the scene for nearly nine hours.
Festive Foods is a food processing plant that makes frozen pizzas. It’s located south of Amherst, near the Waupaca and Portage county line.
According to Waupaca Fire Department, it started around 9:00 a.m. Employees were working hard to put out a small fire in an air compressor area and they thought they extinguished it. However, it ended up spreading to the roof and a newer part of the building, quickly getting out of control.
“Heavy black smoke flames going through the roof lines so at that point and time we tried getting into the inside of the interior of the building and the heat and smoke was so intense that we had to back out and we had a defensive fire all day long,” explained Fire Chief Jerry Deuman.
Shaun Boutwell was at the scene to see first hang in the early phases. He got a phone call from his friends who live just across the road for help with their cattle.
“We moved the cattle from one pasture out to the other and then as the fire got bigger and bigger it sounds weird but the smoke went higher,” said Shaun Boutwell, Waupaca.
Boutwell said he was advised to close the windows of the home because chlorine in the smoke was initially a concern. He was told later that it was not an issue.
Crews left the scene at about 9 p.m. The fire chief says no injuries have been reported and there is no safety threat to the community.
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