Factory damaged in Saturday fire

By Kaitlin Mayhew -- kmayhew@nvdaily.com

FRONT ROYAL -- A fire at Toray Plastics Factory Saturday night caused significant damage, county fire officials said.

At about 9:50 p.m., firemen were dispatched to an alarm at 500 Toray Drive in Front Royal, Fire Marshal Gerry Maiatico said.

The official cause of the fire is unknown and currently under investigation. Maiatico said it appears the fire started because of a mechanical malfunction.

"Officially it looks like an accidental fire, nothing suspicious," he said.

The original fire -- or flash fire -- had been extinguished by indoor sprinklers by the time firemen arrived on the scene. However, Maiatico said it took about an hour to extinguish various hot spots that had ignited as a result of the original blaze.

"The materials that were involved and the location of the fire in the industrial plant posed several unique challenges to our staff," he said.

Maiatico said that because of a number of the industrial facility's trade secrets, he cannot release a lot of information about the type of equipment that caught fire, or the exact location.

Fire crews remained at the scene for three hours.

There were no injuries to rescue personnel or to Toray employees.

Maiatico did not have have the exact number of employees that were in the plant that night, but he said the factory was non-operational at the time. The only ones inside were maintenance staff.

All employees were evacuated and Maiatico said that the quick actions of the facility staff contributed to the fire being contained.

"The damage estimate is still undetermined," he said. "However, it is significant."

Warren County Fire and Rescue Department was assisted at the scene by Shenandoah County Fire and Rescue and Frederick County Fire and Rescue.