Nashua fire fighters move from controlled burn to real one

By Thomas Nelson, tnelson@charlescitypress.com

Instead of fighting a controlled fire, 102 emergency workers fought a real one.

A fire broke out at the GMT Corporation in Nashua, no one was injured, but there was damage to the ceiling and outside of a warehouse.

The fire started near a paint booth, around 9:30 a.m. and spread from there.

Prior to the fire 102 emergency workers, including fire fighters, dispatchers and police officers, were preparing to practice on a controlled fire in Nashua.

The City of Nashua had scheduled a controlled burn of the old Coop building around 9 a.m.

Before officials had the chance to start the fire, another one broke out at the GMT Corporation in Nashua.

“They were just about ready to light it,” said Nashua Fire Chief Tom Johnson.

There isn’t yet word at what caused the fire, the Fire Marshal is supposed to release that information around Monday, July 31.

“All the employees got out safely,” Johnson said.

None of the emergency workers at the scene were injured either, Johnson said.

“The paint room is kind of self inclosed booth, that’s got an exhaust stack,” Johnson said. “Some of that fire came from that exhaust stack.”

The fire didn’t extend to the roof that much, Johnson said. The fire was primarily contained around the paint booth.

“Everything was set up to be used at that controlled burn so we didn’t really have all of your equipment where we needed it,” Johnson said. “It was quite the cooperative effort.”

The Nashua Fire and Rescue, EMA from Chickasaw County, Nashua Police Department and Floyd County Search and Rescue were all present and were going to be involved in the controlled burn.

The fire was put out and under control by 12:45, Johnson said.