Friction between packing materials likely caused last week’s fire at the SCA Tissue plant in Flagstaff. Capt. Mark Johnson from the Flagstaff Fire Department said Thursday that investigators determined that the fire, which occurred late morning on Dec. 20 in the plant’s waste-paper warehouse, was accidentally sparked when baling wire and paper on the large paper bundles rubbed together and got overheated.

“It looks like, just in the process of moving some of that around, some of it got hot,” Johnson said.

Johnson said the fire broke out in a part of the warehouse that could not have been easily accessible by people, and there were no electrical components nearby, such as light bulbs or heaters.

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