Fire ravages 101 Townline Marwood plant

Tillsonburg firefighters returned to Marwood to extinguish hot spots the next day after the blaze was put out. (Jeff Helsdon Photo).

Jeff Helsdon, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

A fire last Tuesday caused between $8 and $12 million in damage to the Marwood International plant at 101 Townline Road.

Employees on the afternoon shift noticed the fire and attempted to put it out with an extinguisher before calling fire at 8:34 p.m. Firefighters were on scene 11 hours, and were assisted by a second aerial truck from Ingersoll and a pumper, rescue and crew from Norfolk’s Courtland Station.

“Structural roof collapse and compromised walls limited safe interior access and defensive fire tactics were used to contain the conflagration to the central portion of production area, limiting impact on adjacent production areas and the office area,” said Geoff Hayman, Tillsonburg’s fire prevention officer. “The sprinkler system limited the spread of fire into the larger production areas, but the entire structure was impacted by the smoke from the fire and water used in suppression of the fire.

Firefighters were called back twice the following day to address some minor hot spots in hard-to-access areas that started burning again.

Asked about a cause, Hayman said, “The fire started in the smaller production area, adjacent to some service equipment. It appears some product shipping containers, roughly five-foot by five-foot cardboard, were first ignited, where it spread to other combustible material. This portion of the structure is early 1960’s – 70’s construction, and was not sprinklered.”

He explained the size of building at time of construction did not require a sprinkler system, and later additions were sprinklered as per code requirements. At press time, fire officials hadn’t been able to safely access the building to assess what started the cardboard on fire.

Providing more detail on the damage estimate, Hayman said it is dependent on the valuation of equipment, machinery, demolition costs and rebuild cost.

The fire is the largest of the year in Tillsonburg when based on loss value.

Marwood was contacted to provide comment, but company officials were still assessing the impacts at press time. Hayman did provide some insight.

“The management is working diligently to access the impact on the building, equipment and machinery,” he said. “The Tillsonburg Building Department will provide guidance on steps necessary to make the structure safe for use, the Electrical Safety Authority will evaluate the condition of the electrical services and components of process equipment, and structural engineers with determine the necessary repairs to move forward. Depending on the results of the building evaluation, certain portions that received limited fire damage may return to production in near future.

Tillsonburg Mayor Deb Gilvesy called the fire a “devastating loss that will impact operations” of Marwood. She reached out to the management of Marwood, offering the town’s support.