Saturday evening fire does damage at Beatrice laundry business

BEATRICE – Firefighters were sent Saturday evening to a local laundromat in Beatrice, where a small fire broke out in one of the machines at the business. 

Firefighters were dispatched to the Soap Opera Laundromat at around six p.m., to a small fire in a dryer.  

Captain Craig Fisher says owners of the facility used a fire extinguisher to douse most of the flames prior to firefighters’ arrival.    The flare up produced smoke inside the building and did an estimated $500 in fire damage to the drying unit.

Fisher said the apparent cause of the flare-up was the drying of some materials of a type that were inappropriate to be placed in a dryer.   Firefighers removed burned material from the dryer and the building was cleared of smoke. There were no injuries.

The business is located across from the Beatrice Public Library along East Court Street.

Fire department personnel were on the scene for about 35 minutes, during what Fisher described as a busy day….with upwards of twenty medical calls in the region sending EMTs or Paramedics to various locations.