A mid-morning fire on January 14 at the Stanley Perrine West Windsor Public Works Facility sent three township employees to the hospital and caused significant damage to the vehicles and facility housing them.
According to Business Administrator Robert Hary, employees were working with a welder on the back of one of the trucks in the bay area of the facility, located on Southfield Road, when sparks flew and caught fire with hydraulic fluid.
“The fire quickly spread into the inside of the truck, which was almost full of Evergreen brush,” said Hary. “So, the fire very quickly spread to the ceiling of the building and invaded the heating and cooling (HVAC) system. It caused damaged to that, and it also caused the power to go out quickly.”
Because the bay was open, Public Works employees drove the truck out of the building, but unfortunately, another newer truck was stuck in the bay area. Employees drove the new truck through the door to get it out of the building, so there was damage to the truck and the door, Hary said.
Both paid and volunteer firefighters from Princeton Junction and West Windsor responded, as well as fire companies from Plainsboro, Robbinsville, and Nottingham. Firefighters cut a hole into the side of the building to inspect for damage in the rafters where the electrical and HVAC systems are located.
Two employees were transported to the University Medical Center at Princeton – one for nausea and another for chest pains. A supervisor, who was inside the building at the time of the fire, was transported to the hospital for smoke inhalation. Hary said, however, that they were taken to the hospital as a precautionary measure.
West Windsor officials currently have an insurance inspector and electrician on the way to the building to assess the damage.
