PICKAWAY COUNTY – Minor Fire in Sofidel Due to Mechanical Issue

01/17/2022

Sofidel-plant — Sofidel built a tissue paper manufacturing plant on 280 acres in Circleville, Ohio. The site is one mile long, and the building contains more than 1.4 million square feet. The integrated plant incorporates a paper mill, a converting plant for producing the finished product and a state-of-the-art warehousing facility. Once at full capacity, the facility will employ 700 people.

PICKAWAY – A fire was reported at Sofidel Inc tonight on US-23 but we didn’t report it because it was pretty minor.

The call came in around 9:15 pm of smoke in a rewinder, a piece of equipment that rolls up large bundles of tissue paper. The motor overloaded started to smoke and fill the room. This prompted a 911 call and fire departments to respond.

Sofidel has a sophisticated fire system that includes sprinklers due to the product they create a very flammable tissue paper for paper towels and toiletries. Any minor fire will send the fire departments to the scene in the masses, most of the time to roll back out unused. That’s what happened today, a minor motor fire that was contained quickly, and departments were sent on their way.

We don’t usually report these fires because they turn out to be not much, and well it gives a company a bad name. Sofidel produces tons of tissue paper a day and once in a while issues happen, motors fail and it’s better to be safe than sorry and call the local fire departments.