An odd chemical smell permeated through North Columbus on Tuesday morning because of a fire at the former Sanderson Plumbing Products plant.
Arson is suspected, though the blaze remains under investigation.
“Everything is vacant, so there is no power or (anything) like that, so pretty obvious that it was set,” Assistant Fire Chief Alan Lewis told The Dispatch.
At about 4 a.m. Tuesday, Columbus Fire and Rescue responded to the vacant plant located off of Tuffy Lane, Lewis said. Firefighters located the source in the back office in the basement of the building and began extinguishing it, Lewis said.
No one was on the scene when firefighters arrived.
At around 8:20 a.m., Lewis said firefighters were still working on putting out multiple “hotspots” that had spread throughout the building caused by sawdust left behind in the facility from when it was operational.
Firefighters were on the scene for about 4 1/2 hours, Fire Chief Charles Yarbrough wrote in a text to The Dispatch.
Lewis said sawdust and plastic remnants in the plant were responsible for the smell and smoke emitted from the fire. He was unsure how much damage the fire did to the building.
“There was a bunch of damage in there already, so you don’t know really what the fire did versus what people have been doing,” Lewis said.
The site has been empty since Sanderson Plumbing, a toilet seat manufacturer, closed after filing Chapter 11 bankruptcy in 2013. Mississippi Development Authority now owns the 30-acre site. MDA did not respond to The Dispatch’s request for comment prior to press time Tuesday.
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