Firefighters responded to Snap-On Tools Tuesday afternoon after employees reported a small oil fire had started in one of the machines at the tool manufacturing plant.
Members of two of the county’s volunteer fire departments — Stoney Creek and Hampton — responded to the fire along with some members of the Elizabethton Fire Department. Most of the Elizabethton firefighters were battling a home fire on Hillside Drive in the East Side community when the fire call was raised at Snap-On Tools, which is located at 2195 State Line Road.
“Hampton was the first on scene,” said Jason Smith, assistant chief of the Stoney Creek Volunteer Fire Department. “They had brought a truck down and staged at Little Caesar’s to help with coverage for the city because they were on another structure fire.”
Snap-On employees evacuated the facility and no one was injured in the fire, Smith said.
The cause of the fire is still under investigation but it started in a component on one of the machines that collects oil, Smith said.
The fire at Snap-On was the third fire in Carter County on Tuesday.
At 1:40 p.m., volunteer firefighters responded to a two-story house fire at 140 Unaka Subdivision Road, Smith said. No one was injured in that blaze either, but the home suffered smoke and water damage.
While volunteer firefighters were at that call, city firefighters responded to a house fire on Hillside Drive. Firefighters arriving at that scene found the fire had spread throughout that home.