Welding sparks cause Logan Justice Building expansion to burn

Sparks from a welder working on the Logan Justice Building expansion started a one-alarm fire, Wednesday, Aug. 20, that caused an estimated $50,000 worth of damage, Logan Fire Marshall Liz Hunsaker said.

The southeast corner of the two-story building currently under construction received the brunt of the damage, as sparks from a welder working in the southeast stairway lit a stack of roofing insulation on the roof on fire, Hunsaker said.

Damage was also done to the roofing deck, which Hunsaker said will have to be replaced.

“We know the southeast corner of the building, all of that has been burned,” Hunsaker said. “Structurally, the building is fine. The guys did a nice job knocking that fire down.”

A sign outside the construction project states the building is “your tax dollars at work,” but it was a different set of tax dollars at work that put the fire out, as combined crews from four fire departments turned their hoses on the blaze.

Part of the county-wide automatic aid system, when the call came in at 1:25 p.m., four fire trucks were dispatched to the scene, the first of which arrived at 1:27 p.m., Hunsaker said.

“The vehicles came from Logan, Cache County, Smithfield and North Logan as part of our automatic aid, which today really showed how great it is to have a good automatic aid, as Logan City’s fire truck – our ladder truck – is down for maintenance right now. It’s a two-story building and we had to catch fire, so we needed a ladder truck. The truck was ready to roll, and they did roll that truck in, which we greatly appreciate.”

Though the fire was contained by mid-afternoon, construction workers were released for the day. Construction will resume Thursday morning, Hunsaker said.

The $6.2 million project is an expansion to the existing Logan City Justice Building, which will later become home to the Logan City Police Department, Hunsaker said.

-seth.h@aggiemail.usu.edu

Two firefighters make their way up the ladder to the second floor of the Logan Justice Building expansion to survey the damage.