‘We will work through it:’ Milwaukee-based paper manufacturing building catches fire, no one injured

MILWAUKEE (CBS 58) -- Fire crews responded to a fire at a paper manufacturing building on Milwaukee’s northwest side on Sunday, Dec. 15.

Deputy Chief Travis Jones with the Milwaukee Fire Department said the call came in around 2:18 p.m. near W. Mill Road and N. Industrial Road. When crews arrived, they saw smoke coming from the ducts of the building.

The space belongs to Sellars Absorbent Materials, a Milwaukee-based company. Chairman and CEO Tom Sellars said 10 employees were inside the building when a machine caught fire. They safely evacuated.

“They did exactly what they were trained to do, they did a lot of fire suppression,” Sellars said. “I’m very appreciative of the Milwaukee Fire Department.”

The company’s paper products can be found at major retailers like Home Depot and Menards. Jones said crews had to battle the flammable items inside of a large machinery that started the blaze.

“Firefighters did a good job getting inside trying to fight a fire inside a piece of machinery,” Jones said. “It’s a large building, very big pieces of machine. It took us a little while to make sure that we got in there, but we made sure that we protected the building.”

Investigators are looking into what started the fire. Sellars said they were unable to determine the total cost of the damage to their manufacturing space on Sunday evening.

We have significant demand right now, we’re actually serving a third line, so we’re oversold at the moment, so this is not great timing,” Sellars said. “But we will work through it.”