Fire Caues Heavy Smoke Condition at Plastics Factory

One worker was treated for smoke inhalation following a fire that erupted at a factory on South Avenue East Thursday afternoon.

The small blaze at Federal Plastics, 715 South Ave. East, had mostly self-extinguished by the time crews from the Cranford Fire Department arrived at the scene at about 1:35 p.m. According to Fire Chief Leonard Dolan, a machine used to extrude pastics caught fire. The blaze was confined to the duct work within the machine itself.

"Once we got into the fire area, the fire had basically self-extinguished," Dolan said.

The blaze, however, resulted in heavy smoke throughout the building, the chief said.

Crews then took measures to make sure that the blaze did not spread to the rest of the warehouse. In addition, firefighters - inlcuding mutual aid crews from Roselle and Westfield - used large fans and the exhaust system in the factory to ventilate the building.

One factory worker was treated for smoke inhalation. Dolan said fire crews from Linden, Rahway and Elizabeth provided mutual aid backup coverage while Cranford firefighters were at the scene.