WHITEHALL, MI — An explosion at one of Whitehall's Alcoa Howmet plants resulted in a fire inside the facility Thursday night, fire officials said.
White Lake Fire Authority Capt. Pete McCarthy said the fire was reported around 11:02 p.m. at Plant 4, 555 Benston Road in Whitehall. An explosion in a titanium dust collector caused a fire near the roof of the facility, McCarthy said. The fire spread through the duct work, he said.
Alcoa officials said no employees were injured and “the rest of the plant was unaffected.”
“There will not be any impact to Alcoa’s customers,” officials said in a statement.
It took firefighters about 80 minutes to get the fire out, but due to the intense heat inside the plant, fire officials remained on scene until about 4 a.m. today, Dec. 6, he said.
The plant had to be evacuated. No injuries were reported, McCarthy said.
As of this morning, the cause of the fire remained undetermined because officials aren’t sure why the explosion occurred in the first place, McCarthy said.
The plant sustained a lot of heat damage to the dust collector, but an immediate damage amount wasn’t available yet this morning, he said.
White Lake was assisted by Montague Fire Authority, Blue Lake Township and Dalton Township fire departments and Norton Shores Canteen 450. An ambulance was on scene as well, McCarthy said.
Heather Lynn Peters covers police and fire, and writes a statewide food column, The Spunky Kitchen, for MLive/Muskegon Chronicle. Email her at hpeters@mlive.com and follow her on Twitter @HLPNEWS.