Created: 11/3/2009 1:06:21 PM 
Burlington, NC -- A fire Tuesday afternoon damaged a hosiery plant and shut down a major road.
The fire started just after noon at the McMichael Mills Plant 3 on South Church Street in Burlington.
The road was closed to traffic from Westbrook to University Drive for several hours.
The fire department ruled it accidental.
It started on the outside of the building when a vendor was welding near an air conditioning unit.
"A spark from the welder got, somehow flew up into some insulation and started a fire in the ductwork on the outside of the building," said Harold Dixon, site manager for McMichael Mills Plant 3.
From there it moved inside the building through ductwork.
"I seen a guy come after a fire extinguisher, but I didn't know it was that bad," said June Taylor, an employee at the plant.
Smoke filled the front 10,000 square feet of the metal building with smoke.
"That smoke rolled fast and we have oil in there and it could have blew up," Taylor said.
"It looked a lot worse than it was, but when you get smoke like that, soot gets all over the equipment, gets on the lightbulbs, gets in the ceiling, and all that has to be cleared and cleaned before you can work in a building again," Dixon said.
A fire wall with fire doors separated the building.
"We've got a firewall between and our employees were trained to lower that fire door immediately," Dixon said.
The practice paid off. Everyone got out of the building before Burlington firefighters arrived.
Everyone is safe.
"It hurts, it hurts," said Taylor, who said she experienced a workplace fire before when the Golden Corral burned in Burlington in Dec. 2007.
"You've got to be thankful that nobody got hurt," she said.
"Everybody's A-OK, and I'm happy," said Pedro Rivera, who said he and his wife work at the plant.
"You start thinking; bills, Christmas, you know things like this. People that don't have a second job and depend on this job, being laid off for a little while until they get things under control," Taylor said.
Dixon said he hopes everyone will still be able to work. The second shift was scheduled to begin as normal around 4 p.m. Tuesday. Dixon said the company will try to operate out of another building on this site while the smoke-damaged building is cleaned.
He said 95 people work at the plant, specializing in spandex yarns for socks and ladies' hosiery products.
The plant has operated on South Church Street in Burlington since 1975. The company is based in Madison, NC.
