A group of workers had to be rescued from the roof of London's former Kellogg plant after a fire broke out on the fourth floor.
Assistant Deputy Fire Chief Dave Walmsley said smoke could be seen billowing out of the fourth-floor windows when firefighters responded to the blaze at 100 Kellogg Lane at around 4pm on Tuesday.
Shannan Taylor (Photo by Miranda Chant, BlackburnNews.com)
Shannan Taylor, a witness who saw the fire and called 911, said she was across the street when the blaze started.
"We noticed the smell and then we noticed the smoke. I made the call and when the fire department came, I noticed that nobody was getting out of the building," she said.
Taylor said she ran in through the front of the building and let everyone on the lower floors know that a fire had started.
"They weren't even aware," she said.
Walmsley said fire crews entered the building and were able to get the majority of workers out. However, three workers who were still unaccounted for had become stranded on the roof of the factory and an aerial unit had to be used to get them to the ground safely.
The deputy fire chief said the fire was mainly contained to a large industrial filter, which caught fire after a cutting torch set fire to dust particles inside the filter.
"We had workers inside working on a large industrial filter system. So they were taking that apart to clean those filters and change those filters and in the course of that action they had to use a cutting torch," said Walmsley, who added that some of the workers attempted to put out the fire but were unsuccessful. "Typically [the filters] are just difficult. They produce a lot of smoke and for the people in there, that's a very dangerous environment for any worker."
The building only sustained some smoke damage but a total damage estimate has not been released at this time.
No injuries have been reported as a result of the fire.
-With files from Miranda Chant
Firefighters respond to the factory at 100 Kellogg Lane after a fire broke out on the fourth floor, May 15, 2018. (Photo by Miranda Chant, BlackburnNews.com)