Crews work to contain fire at Peabody foam plant

PEABODY, Mass. — Firefighters in Peabody worked Wednesday morning to contain a fire that began Tuesday afternoon.

Flames broke out at a Styrofoam manufacturing plant on Fifth Street around 3:30 p.m. and continued to burn all day and into the night.

According to the fire department, everyone who was inside the commercial building evacuated safely and is accounted for.

The fire started at Lifoam, a company that makes Styrofoam coolers.

Operations Director Jeff Wolfe said there were about 50 people inside the building when the fire started.

“I was in the front office and the fire alarm went off and at that point we initiated our emergency procedures, got our people out quickly and safely, and the fire department took over from there,” Wolfe said.

Firefighters never even went inside the building because of the toxic fumes from the Styrofoam chemicals.

“We certainly didn't want to have any long term injuries to any firefighters so we fought the fire from the exterior and we had everybody put on their full gear with self-contained breathing apparatus,” Peabody Fire Chief Steven Pasdon said.

HazMat teams return to the scene Wednesday to take more air samples. Wednesday morning, the air samples came back safe.

It's unclear what started the fire. As of Wednesday morning, crews still weren't allowed inside of the building due to extensive damage and a partial roof collapse.

Companies along the street were expected to remain evacuated Wednesday.

Cox Media Group