City, plant firefighters put out a flash fire at Anchor Glass

Warner Robins firefighters helped put out a flash fire at Anchor Glass after a 911 caller reported seeing smoke from the roof of a building Thursday afternoon.

The call came into 911 at 3:07 p.m., a 911 supervisor said.

A Telegraph photographer saw several fire trucks and fire vehicles rush down Watson Boulevard toward Robins Air Force Base about 3:13 p.m.

He also saw white smoke coming from an Anchor Glass building and some flames.

A Warner Robins police officer had blocked the Booth Road entrance to the plant, where a Telegraph reporter also had been on scene.

The fire was extinguished about 3:30 p.m., Warner Robins Fire Chief Ross Moulton said.

An oil line ruptured on one of the plant machines, which caused a flash fire to travel up some infrastructure into a ventilation chimney, Moulton said.

“So basically, it was just burning up some residual particles of oil,” he said.

City firefighters assisted plant firefighters in putting out the fire, he said.

The fire did not cause any major damage, he said.

The blaze was similar to a fire at the plant in October 2015 caused by a grease buildup that ignited in a chimney vent system.

At least 20 city firefighters had been dispatched to Thursday’s fire scene, along with six firetrucks, including one with a ladder.

The fire could have been worse, and the fire department normally responds that way to Anchor Glass because of the type of structure it is, Moulton said.

“It wasn’t too big a deal,” Moulton said. “We were very happy with the outcome.”

This story was originally published August 10, 2017 at 3:47 PM with the headline "City, plant firefighters put out a flash fire at Anchor Glass."