Oil-soaked clothing is suspected to have caused a fire that damaged the Sam’s Well Service building in east Winfield Thursday evening, fire officials said.
Around 8:20 p.m., fire crews responded to 3800 E. Ninth to find black smoke pouring from vents in the roof. Entry to the building was made through a doorway and the fire was extinguished in about 30 minutes, according to Winfield Fire Capt. Darrell Long.
Long estimates that the metal building and its contents sustained $35,000 in damage.
The fire occurred in an area where employees deposit oil-soaked dirty clothes. No cause for the fire has been determined but Long said firefighters suspect spontaneous combustion – a chemical reaction in which liquid soaked materials, usually stacked, can produce heat and burst into flame.
“We’re leaning toward spontaneous combustion,” Long said. “Because it was not suspicious by any means and there were no other obvious causes.”
No one was injured and the building was unoccupied at the time of the fire.
An office area of the building suffered smoke damage but the fire was put out before it made it to the office.