Firefighters contain Grafarvogur blaze before it spreads

Firefighters extinguished a blaze at a company in Grafarvogur before it caused further damage, mbl.is reported. Jón Kristinn Valsson, a chief officer with the Capital Area Fire and Rescue Service, said the fire could easily have been much worse.

“This was very close, and it could easily have been much worse. If the fire had escaped from the ventilation duct and reached the roof, it could have spread,” Valsson said.

The fire broke out at the company Við og við on Gylfaflöt 3, where flames had spread through the building’s ventilation ducts.

Valsson said the fire began in an extraction system connected to a saw and then spread into a storage building for sawdust, where a large fire developed.

Firefighters had to remove parts of the fire and ventilation ducts to extinguish the blaze. Most of the damage was caused by smoke, while the roof was also damaged where a ventilation pipe exits the building and leads to the sawdust storage shed.

“It is completely destroyed,” Valsson said of the shed.

About 20 people took part in the firefighting operation.