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PLEASANT GROVE -- A fire at a Pleasant Grove business Saturday morning has people who work there wondering if they'll still have jobs.
The fire happened at the Northwest Pipe Company, at about 800 North and 600 West. Fire crews spent the morning putting it out. Now the question is: how did it start? Right now, they're thinking it was an accidental fire that began in an electrical box.
As firefighters did their best trying to save the building, employees of Northwest Pipe Company could only watch and wonder if they'll still have jobs.
Employee Curtis Maupin said, "It just makes it really, really hard."
Maupin has worked at the plant for eight years. But as he watched the building go up in smoke, he thought his job just might be going too.
"There are going to be a lot of guys out of work, wondering what to do. They got families and kids and everything else," he said.
Early Saturday morning, a fire started inside the building. Michael Falgoust lives nearby, saw it, and called 911.
"The whole building was completely engulfed, and I heard an explosion," he said.
When fire crews arrived on scene, they were told the building was full of chemicals. Worried about toxic fumes, they warned people who live nearby to shut their windows and stay inside.
Pleasant Grove fire Capt. Corey Cluff said, "We don't know the chemicals, how they're going to react, what they're going to do when we put water on them."
Crews put the fire out fast, but the $1 million worth of damage is significant.
Don Colledge works at the plant. He said, "It's devastating, you know. It's going to put a good shop of men down because we depend on this job. It's been a good job."
Workers say the plant was set to shut down anyway. Now, this fire will only speed that up, and with the economy the way it is, they're not sure what they're going to do.
Workers were told their branch was going to shut down about three months from now, so they thought they had time to find a job. This fire just might change that.
As employee Trevor Workman said, "It's pretty bad. Yeah, it's bad news."
Workers say that building is probably the most important building on their site because it's where the pipes are processed. Without it, there's not much else they can do.
Again, the cause of the fire is believed to be an accident from an electrical box.
E-mail: acabrero@ksl.com
