No One Hurt in Alice Manufacturing Fire

The Easley Fire Department responded to a structure fire at Alice Manufacturing at 6pm on Thursday, according to Capt. Tim Rowland.

The first units on the scene found fire burning in a loading area in the right side of the building.

Smoke was coming from most of the building.

The first arriving unit made “an aggressive attack” on the fire in the building, Rowland said.

Easley Fire Chief Butch Womack said firefighters had the fire out with ten to fifteen minutes.

Firefighters extinguished the blaze and spent an hour searching the rest of the building for any extensions of the fire.

“The fire itself was small, it was in about a 5 x 5 area. It took us probably about 30-45 minutes to remove all the smoke,” Womack said. “Smoke had lingered and filled the building up, that's what took so long to get the smoke out.”

No one was injured in the fire.

The Alice Manufacturing building is not being used currently, and contains no alarms or sprinklers, Rowland said.

“That mill has been closed for several years,” Womack said.

The Easley Police Department, Pickens County EMS and Pickens County Rescue assisted the fire department.

A witness was briefly held in investigative custody by the Easley Police Department.

“He had pointed out some things to us that seemed out of normal,” Womack said. “We were in fire-fighting mode at the time, so the police department held him until we could get all the pertinent information.”

The cause of the fire is undetermined at this time, and no charges have been filed.

“We know where it started but not how it started,” Womack said. “There's no power to the building, no water to the building. It had to be some sort of force way. It has to be assisted.”

The investigation is ongoing, he said.

“We're trying to uncover new leads,” Womack said.