Explosion, fire damage factory in Caldwell Co.

Lacquer erupts in flames near worker

Thursday, Jan. 11, 2007

By Marcie Young
Charlotte Observer Staff Writer

GRANITE FALLS – An explosion and fire destroyed a storage trailer and damaged part of a furniture factory in Caldwell County on Wednesday, but no one was seriously injured.

Twelve employees were working at Danny Cook's custom finishing plant on Hurricane Hill Road when the explosion occurred shortly before 4 p.m. Wednesday.

Firefighters were still investigating the cause of the explosion.

Shane Duran, 25, said he was spraying furniture with a highly flammable lacquer when he heard the spray booth motor pop. He went to turn off the machine, he said, when flames erupted no more than two feet from his face, slightly singeing his forehead.

"I guess it sparked and caught the dust on fire," he said.

Within seconds, flames had covered the ceiling and were lapping at the walls of the room, he said. Duran and the other 11 employees working in the factory fled the building and called 911.

"By the time they could get to the fire extinguisher, (the fire) had already spread," said Caldwell County Fire Marshall Robbie Wilkie.

The back portion of the single-story building, where Duran and five other employees were working, held piles of wood and dozens of bottles of combustible fluids for finishing the furniture, workers said. The fire spread to the attached storage trailer.

"(The room) had lumber from the floor to the ceiling," said employee Delmar Weaver, 31, who had been working with Duran when the fire began.

Grace Chapel Fire Chief Josh Teague said the back portion of the building was destroyed. Other than the partially melted ceiling, Teague said the main showroom and front part of the building suffered considerably less damage.


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