By Shavonne Walker

shavonne.walker@salisburypost.com

Firefighters stayed busy over the weekend with three commercial fires in separate parts of the county. All the fires were contained and no injuries were reported from them.

Crews responded Friday around 11 p.m. to the former Performance Fibers, now DuraFiber Technologies, 7401 Statesville Blvd. to find smoke showing from building K.

DuraFiber’s fire brigade worked with fire crews to assess the conditions and fight the fire.

Fire Division Chief Deborah Horne saidthe fire started around an exhaust line. The line had polymers which, she said, were extremely hot, and officials believe there may have been a spark.

“The fire brigade did a fantastic job and all the automatic fire suppression systems, but it was too  much to handle,” Horne said.

At one point, the fire had reached three floors of the building. All of the employees evacuated the building. There were no injuries at the two-alarm fire, she said.

The fire was under control at 12:40 a.m.

On Saturday, fire crews responded to a machinery fire at Phelps Wood Products around 10 p.m. Fire Investigator Mark Troublefield said the fire began in a wood chipping machine outside the company, located at 1621 Redmon Road, Cleveland.

No one was at the business when the fire occurred but one of the co-owners had left around 3 p.m. after he’d done some work there. The fire was called in by police who were conducting a security check in the area and saw the mulch pile smoldering.

By the time fire crews responded, the mulch pile was ablaze.

There were no injuries, Troublefield said.

On Monday at 2:30 a.m., firefighters responded to a fire at the second building of Gildan Yarn, 2121 Heilig Road. Officials said employees evacuated the plant, which had reports of heavy smoke inside.

Two people were treated for minor smoke inhalation. Gildan officials have said the fire started in the filter house. Officials said some filters and plastic components within the ducts and air filtration will be have to be replaced.

Contact reporter Shavonne Walker at 704-797-4253.