A midmorning fire destroyed a cabinet manufacturing business in a West Salt Lake industrial neighborhood Tuesday.
Fifteen employees of Kleins Tri-Cove Co. Inc., 1030 S. 700 West, were evacuated shortly after the 10:36 a.m. alarm that drew firefighters from three
stations.Some workers were heat-treating laminate, "and there was a flash of some sort," said Larry Littleford, spokesman for the Salt Lake City Fire
Department. Four ladder trucks battled the blaze, which gutted the 30,000- square-foot building and caused heavy water damage to a custom painting business next door. Several small explosions during the fire were most likely buckets of glue in the cabinet-making shop, Littleford said.
But only one injury was reported when a firefighter tripped over a hose and dislocated his ankle.
The blaze sent up a thick plume of smoke and deposited wet black ash on the scores of bystanders and news media. Vehicles that had slowed to a crawl along 900 South were also covered with ash as motorists tried to view the spectacle.
Another recent three-alarm fire Aug. 19 destroyed a shed and torched adjacent buildings at 24 D St. (415 East).