Palmer Officials Pleased with Fire Investigation

officials say they are pleased with the outcome of the state police investigation into July's & Manufacturing Co. The probe concluded that the blaze started when a piece of scrap plastic was improperly extinguished.

"I'm quite comfortable with the findings," township supervisor Bob Lammi said. "I'm happy with the investigation. It was thorough. The state police fire marshal and Palmer police and fire do an excellent job. I'm just sad that the fire happened."

No fines are expected to be levied against the company, according to officials with the state . DEP officials were on the scene the day after the fire taking soil water and soil samples.

"Since there was no impact to aquatic life, an enforcement action is not planned at this time," Jamie Legenos, a DEP information specialist, said in a statement Monday.

Over the weekend, state police released details of the investigation, which concluded that an improperly extinguished scrap of plastic was to blame for the that could be seen for miles around.

A National Plastics employee conducted a burn test on a piece of scrap plastic and failed to properly extinguish it, state police at Bethlehem said according to .

The employee then discarded the scrap with other plastic debris, police said, resulting in a fire that took firefighters from 25 departments in four counties more than six hours to put out. The fire began in an exterior storage area adjacent to the north side the National Plastics building, police said.

The Palmer Township fire and police departments, assisted by the state police Troop M fire marshal unit, conducted the fire investigation.

A state trooper involved in the investigation would not provide further details Monday.

Officials from National Plastics did not return phone calls Monday on whether the employee remains with the company or whether any disciplinary measures will be taken.

"Obviously, you're never happy to see that there was a fire," Chairman Dave Colver said. "But at least we found out that it was operator error. That's much better than something deliberate being done."

Colver said that supervisors have not been notified whether the company will be fined for the fire.

"This wasn't done maliciously," he said. "It was a mistake. It's a tragedy that happened, but the best part is that no one got hurt. And the building can be fixed."