Green Country Business Damaged In Fire

Tuesday, June 26th 2007, 11:01 am

By: News On 6

It was a strange day for Broken Arrow firefighters. As they responded to an industrial fire Tuesday morning, they had to deal with the rain and a business owner with a fiery temper. The News On 6â€™s Steve Berg reports it happened at North American Carbide Tools, a machine shop that firefighters say has some flammable liquids.

"Their equipment has an oil-based product in it that they use, I assume, to keep the tools cool when they're cutting the metal. And apparently they had a fire in that oil basin or something," said Broken Arrow Fire Major Rick Fisher.

From there, they say it spread quickly.

"They tried to extinguish it with a fire extinguisher. That didn't work,â€ Fisher said. â€œIt spread up the wall, and at that time, they called the fire department."

The fire itself was relatively routine, but officials say one of the business owners apparently lost his cool too, wanting to go back into the burning building to retrieve two cats and had an altercation with firefighters.

"Apparently there was a civilian,â€ Fisher said. â€œHe was taken into custody by the Broken Arrow Police Department."

Firefighters say there are actually multiple businesses in the Carbide building, and it was at one of these other businesses that the man worked.

"There's three sections that are pretty damaged by the heavy fire and the rest of them are going to have some heavy smoke damage involved," said Broken Arrow Fire Captain Larry Bauder.

One firefighter had a minor back injury in the effort, but otherwise no serious injuries.

John Elder Parker Jr. was booked on a complaint of obstructing a police officer and was still in jail at last report. Police say he might face additional complaints for the altercation with the firefighters.

One of the two cats was saved. Firefighters think the other one ran off.

Watch the video: Firefighters Battle Industrial Fire And Concerned Business Owner