Workers in Mound House 'just got a good scare' during fire

No one was hurt during a small fire in a commercial building in Mound House on Wednesday morning.

Red-hot aerospace parts ignited oil vapor at Nafco Industries Inc. at about 10:30 a.m., according to the company's President Bill Dietlein.

"No one was hurt - we just got a good scare," he said.

"The fire suppression system did what it's supposed to do."

The fire occurred when an employee overloaded a machine, he said.

"The guy doing the heat-treat quench wasn't following procedures - he put too many parts in the quench tank," Dietlein said. "So we had a pretty good bit of flame that burned the insulation on the wall next to it."

Employees used hand-held carbon dioxide and dry-chemical extinguishers to douse the flame.

Early reports that three people were trapped by the fire were unfounded.

"There was so much smoke and vapor in there that you couldn't tell," Dietlein said.

Rescue crews from the Lyon and Storey county fire departments responded to the scene with four engines and an ambulance.

Nafco Industries makes fasteners for aerospace use. The building is at 26 Stokes Drive.

Dietlein said he will design a safer system.

"I think what I'm going to do is build a system that is a little more automated - a little less sensitive to human error."

Contact Karl Horeis at khoreis@nevadaappeal.com or 881-1219.