Nov. 25 -- North Haven -- Fire crews on Monday afternoon quickly doused a two-alarm blaze that started inside a warehouse at the Pratt & Whitney site, a property in the midst of demolition.
North Haven Fire Department Lt. David Obier said the fire started in a pile of old wooden blocks that once served as the warehouse floor. The blocks had been ripped out of the floor earlier this month by demolition crews.
"One pile caught fire and we're still not sure what triggered it," Obier said.
Obier noted that the first call came into the Fire Department at 12:33 p.m. It took less than half an hour for firefighters to have the blaze under control, and the scene was cleared just after 2:15 p.m., Obier said.
Piles of the blocks were visible inside the vacant warehouse. The blocks appeared to be coated in black. Obier said the coloring was likely caused by decades' worth of machine oil spilling onto the floor and soaking into the wood.
The minor challenge facing firefighters was the fact that all hydrants at the sprawling 165-acre property had been disconnected years ago.
"We did what's known as a water shuttle," Obier said, referring to the practice of having one fire engine transport water from a hydrant on Washington Avenue to another fire engine parked at the scene.
Crews began demolishing the aircraft engine maker's facility at 409-415 Washington Ave. in early October. Town officials have said the site is being transformed into a modern industrial park.
Pratt & Whitney's North Haven plant shut down in October 2002. The 1.4 million-square-foot main building specialized in making turbine airfoils, the blades that go into jet engines.
The plant opened in 1952.
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