Herald staff
ARLINGTON – An employee at West Coast Forest Products was hurt when he tried to put out a fire in wood-chip container late Tuesday night.
The injured man, 40, was not immediately identified by emergency workers. He was treated at the scene and then airlifted to Harborview Medical Center in Seattle with “serious” burns, said Arlington Fire Chief Mike Ganz.
The fire was reported shortly after 11 p.m. The business is at 19406 68th Drive NE, just east of the Arlington airport.
Ganz said an employee had noticed smoke coming from a large, 50-foot-high metal hopper that was full of wood chips. While one worker called 911, another employee took a hose line, normally used to put down dust particles at the wood-processing plant, and was trying to put out the fire when he was injured, Ganz said.
“It flared up on him,” Ganz said.
Arlington firefighters arrived on the scene within five minutes after the fire was reported.
Three engines, a ladder company, a medic unit and two aid cars, responded to the fire. About 40 firefighters were on the scene, and personnel from fire districts in Bryant and Arlington Heights were called in to man Arlington stations during the incident.
No buildings were involved in the fire and none nearby appeared to be threatened by the hopper blaze. The container, one of five located outside of the business, did not appear to be damaged in the fire, Ganz said.
Firefighters were on the scene until 4 a.m., and one crew was left at the building to watch for hot spots.
“We were there throughout the night. Our first priority was to take care of the patient and to work to confine the fire to that main cylinder unit,” he said.
No one at West Coast Forest Products was available for comment early today.
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