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May 31, 2007

Fire incinerates contents of Coventry steel building

COVENTRY – Automobiles, cutting torches and welding equipment inside a steel building were destroyed in a morning fire in Coventry when sparks from a metal-cutting grinder ignited nearby combustible material.

The 30-by-50-foot building itself survived the intense heat of the fire, but nothing inside the structure on Twin Brook Lane did, according to Robert Seltzer, chief of the Central Coventry Fire District. He estimated damages could be in the hundreds of thousands of dollars.

By this afternoon, fire investigators deemed the fire to be accidental, Seltzer said. A worker had been using the grinder, whose sparks ignited nearby wood or rags, but he had left the building to go to an automotive store. When the worker returned to the building, whose exact address Seltzer could not provide, the building was on fire, the chief said.

-- projo.com staff writer Kate Bramson

Two firefighters sustained minor injuries – one a back strain and the other heat exhaustion, said Seltzer, who believes they were both treated and released from a local hospital.

With no water supply in that part of Coventry, firefighters had to rely on tanker trucks. The four Coventry fire districts responded, as did crews from Exeter-West Greenwich and Oneco, Conn., Seltzer said.

Reported at 9:48 a.m., the fire was under control around 10:30 a.m. and completely out by about 11 a.m., Seltzer said.

Posted by Kate Bramson at 6:07 PM | Permalink

May 31, 2007

Fire incinerates contents of Coventry steel building

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