Large paint shop burns east of Swansea

Sandy Run, SC (Paul Kirby) – A large pole building used as a paint shop burned on Thursday afternoon in the 2300 block of Redmond Mill Road. Responding firefighters reported seeing heavy smoke rising from the fire while they were enroute.

Crews from Sandy Run, Swansea, Mack Edisto, Gaston, Sharpe’s Hill, South Congaree, Edmund, and other county fire stations responded. The battalion chief that was enroute also requested several water tankers respond from fire stations in Calhoun County.

When the first units arrived, they found heavy smoke and flames coming from the building. Firefighters began their attack while more trucks and personnel were enroute and arriving on the scene.

Although the fire was quickly controlled, the senior fire official on the scene requested that DHEC be notified because as much as 400 gallons of paint was released during the fire. That chief was waiting on word from the DHEC personnel as to how they wanted to deal with that material.

Besides the firefighters that were on the scene, EMT's were there assisting, as were law enforcement officials. It wasn’t clear whether DHEC was going to dispatch an official to the scene, or deal with mitigating the paint problem through a contractor. It is normally the property or material owner's responsibility for the cost of the cleanup when hazardous materials are spilled.

The estimated damage to the building and the cause of the fire have not yet been released.