Firefighter injured responding to transformer blaze at industrial building

A New Albany firefighter was injured during a call at an industrial building Monday.

Fire Chief Mark Whiteside said the New Albany Fire Department was dispatched to the old VIP and BenchCraft building just before noon Monday to reports of a transformer fire.

There were also reports of hearing a loud boom about the same time of the incident, he said.

“Crews arrived to find heavy black smoke coming from behind the building,” Whiteside said. “New Albany Light, Gas and Water crews were on scene as well and checked the scene for safety due to live electrical lines.”

When NLG&W gave the all clear, fire crews proceeded with extinguishing the fire.

“The fire was quickly extinguished, and while crews were working a firefighter from Station 1 received non-life-threatening injuries while stepping across a thick muddy ditch in full gear and carrying equipment to reach the fire,” Whiteside said.

“The fire fighter is being evaluated by medical personnel to determine the extent of the injury at this time,” the chief concluded.