Wood Pellet Factory Fire in Deposit Quickly Contained

Apr 03, 2023

What could have been a very long day and a difficult fight, a blaze at a factory that makes a product specifically designed to burn has been quickly contained and put out.

Firefighters from close to a half dozen companies were summoned to the New England Wood Pellet factory at 1580 Airport Road in Deposit at around 2:55 a.m. with word that the facility that manufactures fuel for pellet stoves, grills and smokers as well as other products like animal bedding was on fire.

According to Broome County Emergency Services Communications, the fire was reported in "the bag room", which they speculate is where the finished product of compressed, tightly bonded wood particles intended for burning, would be stored in large quantities.

About a half hour after the initial call, a second alarm was sounded, bringing additional fire units to the scene.

Communications officials say the situation could have been a much more serious on had the flames gotten into the inventory of compressed wood pellets instead of being quickly contained by firefighters to a single piece of equipment and extinguished.

The plant is situated just South of New York State Route 17 and the railroad tracks that run parallel to the highway and the West Branch of the Delaware River.

Wood pellets are made from a ground-up and compressed combination of hard and soft woods and are specifically made to burn steadily and evenly for use in industrial boilers, pellet stoves and barbecue grills

There had been no reports of injuries and there was no information available as to how the initial call was made to Emergency Services

Firefighters from Deposit, Windsor, Hancock, Harpursville and West Windsor all responded to the scene along Afton and Masonville firefighters placed on standby. The Eastern Broome Ambulance and Superior Ambulance were also on the scene.