OGDEN, Utah — Ogden-area fire crews battled a fire inside the Alphia facility at 29th Street and Wall Avenue for around five hours Thursday evening – and they say it’s just one of several recent incidents that have drawn first responders to the facility.
Deputy Chief Matthew Hess with Ogden Fire says it was about 3 p.m. on Thursday when crews just so happened to be in the area and realized that something was wrong. “They noticed that there was just kind of a weird smoke that was pushing out of one of the stacks here,” said Hess.
Ogden resident Matt Champion also quickly took notice. “It’s a pretty chaotic scene - especially from the video I saw online,” said Champion.
Those videos show dark smoke billowing into the air, with fire officials saying it originated in a dog food biscuit oven and moved into ducts throughout the building.
“So, we had fire kind of getting spread into two separate places, which caused further issues for us,” Hess said.
They were able to evacuate everyone safely, and workers are waiting to see if they’ll be operational tomorrow.
Hess says one of the hoppers within the facility was burned but they couldn’t yet determine the full extent of the damage the company faces. He also notes their crews have become familiar with the building.
They responded to another fire that also evacuated the building earlier this year.
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“It was at this facility, and it’s pretty much in the exact same area that we had back in March,” said Hess.
Hess says they’ve been called out on three or four incidents here in recent years and have tried to prevent days just like this one. “I know that we have worked with the company quite extensively on just improving plans,” Hess said. “When an incident or a fire starts, giving us a way to isolate it or shut it down, or have them isolate it before it spreads.”
“I think this is something we’re going to have to continue to look at,” he continued.
Workers we saw outside the facility on Thursday told us they weren’t allowed to comment. We’ve reached out to officials with Alphia for comment on the incident and haven’t yet heard back.
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