By Andrew Martins, Managing Editor
A plastic container manufacturing facility in Hillsborough Township was the scene of a two-alarm fire on Monday, which prompted a large response from multiple fire companies in the surrounding area.
According to fire officials on the scene at the Tri-Delta Plastics facility on Cougar Court, the incident was first reported at approximately 12:40 p.m.
Fire Marshal Chris Weniger said the fire originated from a piece of machinery.
“One of the machines caught fire and the flames spread,” Mr. Weniger said. “The fire department arrived and put out the fire with the assistance of the sprinkler system.”
No injuries were reported at the scene and officials said the fire was under control by 1:19 p.m.
Tri-Delta Plastics, which was purchased by Pretium Packaging in 2014, produces plastic bottles, caps and other packaging products.
Mr. Weniger said the piece of equipment that caused a fire was a blow-molding machine. Due to the spillage of chemicals and oils used in that process, the marshal said a hazmat unit was deployed to the scene.
“These machines contain cutting oil – different types of oils – and because we used water, the oil is all over the floor,” Mr. Weniger said.
Along with all four of the Hillsborough Township Fire companies, personnel from the Fire Marshal’s Office, the Hillsborough Rescue Squad, Millstone Valley Fire Department, the Finderne Fire Department in Bridgewater, the Elizabeth Avenue Fire Company in Somerset and the Manville Fire Department responded to the scene.
Though the site is less than a mile away from the scene of a massive fire that took place at Veterans Industrial Park back in February, Mr. Weniger said the response on Monday was no different than any other instance.
“With the size of the building and the fact that this happened at a time when our response is not as good – as well as the fact that our firefighters don’t last as long fighting fires in this heat – we ended up calling more people,” Mr. Weniger said.
An investigation into the exact cause of the fire is ongoing.
