FRANKLIN -- A fire at a Franklin industrial complex sent workers scrambling to safety Wednesday.
All of the other workers in the area were told to stay inside their builds as smoke billowed out from S&C Electric Company.
You could see the thick, black smoke from the ground and from Chopper 4. The fire was so extreme that firefighters had to wait and let it burn until a HazMat team was able to arrive with a material used to put out the fire - putting water on a battery fire simply doesn't work.
An electric engineer who heard the alarms and rushed to help others in the parking lot recalls a chaotic scene.
"There were a lot of people who left their car keys, cell phones, and weren't afforded the opportunity to leave the facility so they're trapped in a hard parking lot all day; so I ran out and got some water since I was the one parked in the better spots," Anthony Elliott says.
A spokesperson for the company released the following statement Wednesday afternoon:
“At 10:58 AM today, our Franklin, Wis., facility experienced a fire that has since been contained. Our team followed strict safety protocols and quickly evacuated all team members; we are grateful that no injuries resulted from this incident and are thankful to the local fire department and emergency response teams for their quick action and continued support.”
