news-record.com

GREENSBORO -- Static electricity started an acetylene tank fire that caused at least two small explosions and two nearby businesses to be evacuated Wednesday morning.

Wednesday's cold, dry air were the perfect conditions for static discharges, said David Douglas, assistant chief of the Greensboro Fire Department.

According to Douglas, an employee who was moving tanks this morning, heard a noise, turned around and saw an acetylene tank on fire. An employee at the supply company called firefighters at 8:16 a.m., and two adjacent businesses were evacuated.

The fire burned itself out by about 9:30 a.m. No one was injured in the blaze, and damage appeared to be minimal. Firefighters were able to confine the blaze to one pallet of 16 150-pound acetylene cylinders used for welding.

"We certainly had a best-case scenario this morning," said Douglas. "This could have been an extremely spectacular fire at the very least and at worse a very destructive fire."

Brandi Horner is the office manager at Carolina Industrial Products, which is next door to the supply company. She said an employee heard an explosion and told others.

"He said, 'Y'all hear that? There's a big cloud of smoke outside,'" Horner said. Other employees went outside to take a look and saw a second explosion.

Firefighters were concerned that nearby hydrogen and propane tanks might burn as well, Douglas said, so they poured water on them from an aerial and ground hose to keep them cool. Firefighters let the pallet of acetylene tanks burn until all of the gas was gone.

Neither fire officials nor employees at nearby businesses could recall similar recent problems at Machine & Welding Supply.