Spark ignited paint spray in Scranton fire
By JARED STRONG
A bad electrical connection sparked the Monday night fire that caused substantial damage at a Scranton Manufacturing building.
A worker there was using a special type of painting system — known as electrostatic coating — when a bad ground connection of the system sparked and ignited the paint that was being sprayed at the time, Greene County Sheriff Jack Williams said.
The fire was reported about 11:23 p.m. at the building on the west edge of Scranton. No one was injured.
It took about four hours to extinguish the fire, which mainly affected the southwest corner of the building, Williams said.
Scranton Manufacturing is best known for its New Way line of garbage trucks, which are built locally and sold internationally.
Mike McLaughlin, chief executive of the business, said the fire started in a paint booth and that the damage would force the plant to halt aspects of production for an unspecified amount of time.
“We are thankful that no one was injured during the incident,” McLaughlin said, “and we are proud of our employee-family as they rally to get us back to full operation as quickly as possible.”
The facility reopened Wednesday.
There was visible smoke damage along large doors of the building. The total extent of the damage has not been released, but the company said much of it was from smoke.
“It’s not good,” McLaughlin said.
The electrostatic paint equipment electrically charges the paint spray, which is attracted to the metal it is sprayed onto. It’s a more efficient painting method because the spray can curve around edges and paint surfaces that are not in a direct line of sight with the sprayer.
The Scranton facility was open Wednesday morning and accepting deliveries, and finished units will continue to ship, the company announced.
New Way’s Carroll-based parts department and its new Booneville, Miss., manufacturing facility are both fully operational.
The homegrown manufacturer has grown exponentially in recent years.
New Way on Feb. 13 announced its acquisition of ROTO PAC — the first auger-driven organics collection truck in North America — from a Quebec-based company, Ginove.
New Way had partnered with Ginove on developing ROTO PAC, and now will build the ROTO PAC at its Mississippi plant.
In a separate transaction, New Way partnered with Durabac, a Quebec-based manufacturer of refuse equipment, to manufacture products for the Canadian market.
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