Fire At Norwood Moderna Campus Wednesday Morning

NORWOOD, MA - A fire broke out early Wednesday morning at a building on the Moderna campus on Investor's Way off of Washington Street that was under construction, according to the Norwood Fire Department.

In a one-on-one interview with Patch Wednesday afternoon, Fire Chief David Hayes said that the fire was at the former Mercer building, which is owned by Moderna and is currently undergoing construction. It was not in the main building, where Moderna produces its COVID-19 vaccine.

"The fire was called in at 5:56 a.m.," Hayes said. "No one was injured, and there were only a few construction workers on site. It definitely took less than two hours to put out."

Hayes called Patch at 10:10 a.m. to initially explain the circumstances of the fire. The Westwood Fire Department was called in to assist the crew, he said, while an engine from the Walpole Fire Department provided coverage at the station during the fire.

"It looks like it started on the roof," Hayes said. "It ran down under the HVAC system of the building."

The building is about 260,000 square feet, he added. Lines had to be run over multiple sides of the building to contain it.

"It was extremely inconvenient," Hayes continued. "The guys initially went up with fire extinguishers and thought they could put it out. However, because it went into the HVAC system, they had to get a lot of chopping and cutting to get to it and put it out."

A Boston 25 report said the fire was small and was contained on the roof