MONTAGUE — Sawdust that likely got heated by an exposed wire is believed to have caused a two-alarm fire at the custom architectural millwork manufacturer at 26 North Leverett Road on Wednesday afternoon.
Employee Marty Crouch said he called 911 at around 2:15 p.m. after he and other workers at Architectural Components started smelling smoke. He said the company has a ventilation system that removes sawdust from equipment and deposits it in a different section of the facility. The business makes custom doors and windows.
Crouch said the ventilation system runs about eight hours a day and appears to still be functioning properly. According to Crouch, business owner Chris James, who was in New York at the time of the fire on Wednesday, has insurance.
Luke Hartnett, chief of the Turners Falls and Montague Center fire departments, said at around 5:23 p.m. on Wednesday that firefighters had extinguished much of the fire in the sawdust-collection area. He said firefighters first attacked the blaze from underneath and then started cutting holes from atop the roof to reach any flames.
“Everybody’s still a bit tired. It was a long afternoon, but everyone is doing well,” Hartnett said Thursday morning, adding that the scene was cleared at roughly 12:30 a.m. “We kept finding small little smoldering areas. … It was a stubborn fire. The fires that are easy are the ones where you can see fire.”
The response included departments from at least Turners Falls, Montague Center, Leverett, Wendell, Erving, Conway, South Deerfield, Sunderland, Deerfield, Warwick, Whately, Amherst, Greenfield, New Salem, Orange and Shutesbury.
“My hat is off to the crews that were there,” Hartnett said.
The Montague Police Department blocked off the portion of North Leverett Road that begins at its intersection with Route 63. Hartnett said the road reopened at around 10 p.m.
