Fire forces evacuation at Nestle plant in Burlington, "fire crews on multiple floors"

BURLINGTON -- Employees at the Nestle plant in Burlington were forced to take an unplanned break on Friday morning, June 12th. The building was evacuated because of a fire.

The fire broke out around 10:30 a.m. Friday.

"Once we identified the problem on the second floor our crews attacked the fire," said Burlington Fire Chief Perry Howard.

But Chief Howard says that wasn't exactly easy.

"It was quite a distance inside the plant and we had fire crews on multiple floors," said Howard. "So, it created hazards for us and our people inside the building."

That's exactly why the plant was evacuated -- and a second alarm was called. Crews were spread out on three floors.

"In addition to that when they run out of air in their bottle which only last 20-30 minutes we move them out and we move another crew in," said Howard. "And every time you do that you have to have someone to replace the crew that's coming out."



One firefighter became light-headed and dizzy. But officials say he was not hurt -- and did not need to be taken to a hospital.

Chief Howard says firefighters have tackled fires at the Nestle plant before; three in the last three years. So he's familiar with how the company operates.

"They run a pretty good plant. We work very closely with the staff there and today was a perfect example where we worked with their staff to mitigate the fire," said Howard.

Shortly after the fire was brought under control, a Nestle spokeswoman told FOX6 News all of the employees were safe and accounted for. She added they were cleaning up the mess left because of the fire -- and assessing the damage.