Big fire at rubber plant in Abbotsford

A fire at a rubber plant in Abbotsford is now under control.

The fire broke out at North West Rubber, located at 33850 Industrial Avenue, beside Highway 11, at about 9:40 a.m.

A number of pallets of rubber caught fire and for a while, thick black smoke could be seen billowing into the sky.

The fire also affected traffic.

One witness told Global News that the burning rubber created a bad smell in the area.

Leighton Friesen, the CEO of North West Rubber, issued the following statement on the fire:

As you are aware there was a fire this morning at North West Rubber. In the process of pulling away pallets of mats from where the fire was, one of our employees inhaled some smoke and has been sent to the hospital for precautionary measures.

Other than that, there were no other injuries.

From what we can tell right now, the fire started at the edge of our property, adjacent to a neighbouring business. That portion of our property is inactive, so it is unclear as to what could have caused the fire.

We will work with the fire department to help determine what may have caused this.

This fire occurred a ways away from our buildings, or any of our equipment, so there is no impact to our operations other than a relatively small amount of inventory, which has been damaged.

Tweet This Click to share quote on Twitter: As you are aware there was a fire this morning at North West Rubber. In the process of pulling away pallets of mats from where the fire was, one of our employees inhaled some smoke and has been sent to the hospital for precautionary measures.</p><p>Other than that, there were no other injuries.</p><p>From what we can tell right now, the fire started at the edge of our property, adjacent to a neighbouring business. That portion of our property is inactive, so it is unclear as to what could have caused the fire.</p><p>We will work with the fire department to help determine what may have caused this.</p><p dir="ltr" lang="en">This fire occurred a ways away from our buildings, or any of our equipment, so there is no impact to our operations other than a relatively small amount of inventory, which has been damaged.

North West Rubber is one of the largest rubber mat manufacturers in the world. It owns and operates manufacturing facilities in Illinois, Colorado, Ontario, British Columbia, and Beijing.