– It is quiet at the fire station now. But there is still smoke, says Petter Vinje Svendsen, emergency manager at the Østre Agder Fire Service. Late on Monday evening, a sea of flames met the fire brigade when they arrived at the building where Arendal Lettmetallindustri is located. The building is located close to county road 410 Kystveien in Saltrød. Don’t know anything about the cause Just after 11 p.m. last night, the police reported that the building had caught fire. They say it is too early to say anything about the cause of the fire. – First it has to be extinguished, then further investigations will be carried out when the fire scene has completely cooled down, says Jarle Nilsen, head of operations in the Agder police. – Now we have brought in an excavator, which will turn around and remove building parts that have fallen down in order to extinguish them properly, says Vinje Svendsen. The fire service will continue with this throughout the morning. The road past the town is still closed, and will probably remain so beyond Tuesday while the work on the fire site continues. Detour is signposted via Longum. Two in neighboring buildings were evacuated. The police say the farm owners were initially at the scene of the fire. In addition to the painting workshop, there will be several others based in the building. – It was clarified early on from the farm owners that there were no people in the building. Two people from a neighboring building were evacuated and found an alternative place for the night, says Nilsen. It is a large steel and concrete building that has now been lost. Half the building has collapsed. Everything inside the building is burnt out. Early in the extinguishing phase, there was a risk of the fire spreading to cars parked nearby. – There is no danger of spreading now. We extinguished the fire within a good hour, says Vinje Svendsen. There are large amounts of value that have been lost in the fire, as well as several jobs. Fire crews from Arendal, Moland and Grimstad were sent to the fire, reports 110 Agder.
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