Several agencies responded to the massive fire at the Atascosa County facility, where officials say two firefighters sustained non-life-threatening injuries.
ATASCOSA COUNTY, Texas — Leaders with Duraflame, which specializes in wood and fire starter products, said a “significant amount of the production capability” at a Pleasanton plant managed by a subsidiary company was destroyed in a massive weekend fire that sent huge plumes of smoke billowing into the evening sky.
The statement by Duraflame President Chris Caron didn’t provide details on how the fire at the WW Wood plant might have started. But he said there were no injuries to personnel.
WW Wood creates products specifically for cooking and barbecuing.
“Many of our customers are not serviced from the Pleasanton location and will not be affected by this fire,” Caron said. “We will be working with impacted customers to provide them with alternate supply options from our other facilities until we can assess the damage and implement a recovery plan at the WW Wood site.”
Officials with the Pleasanton Fire Department said more than 80 agencies responded to the scene in the 1700 block of Corgey Road on Saturday evening, including crews from neighboring Wilson and Bexar counties. Through their efforts over the course of several hours, authorities were able to contain the fire to the warehouse, where it “is being allowed to burn under controlled conditions.”
Two firefighters were injured in the operation and taken to a hospital to be treated, but were soon released. The cause is still under investigation.
“This was a challenging fire due to the size of the structure and the materials involved, but thanks to the quick action of our crews and mutual aid partners, we were able to contain in and prevent further damage,” Pleasanton Fire Chief Bradley Chambers is quoted as saying in a release.
New video provided by a family that lives in the area shows just how immense the emergency was before fire crews began to make headway on extinguishing it.
Caron said Duraflame would “quickly address this unfortunate impact on our business and our WW Wood employees and continue our mission to supply consumers across the country with great quality grilling wood products.”
It remains unclear, however, exactly how many workers are directly impacted.