A working commercial fire at the Highwood USA building in the Tidewood Industrial Park on Wednesday was caused by employees burning items outside in a pit that got out of hand.

Hometown Assistant Fire Chief and incident commander Dave Crewell said, “There is a lot of structural damage,” though an estimate was not provided.

The fire at 87 Tide Road was called in at 9:25 a.m.

“It started outside the building and went inside,” a supervisor at the Schuylkill Communications Center said.

Crewell said there were no injuries in the fire that was called under control at 1:15 p.m.

Crewell said a propane tank on a forklift exploded. Crewell said there was 3 inches of water throughout the entire building.

Firefighters from Schuylkill, Luzerne and Carbon counties were on scene, including representatives of both Schuylkill and Carbon’s Offices of Emergency Management.

All employees of the plant were evacuated to a secure location. Crewell did not know how many employees were inside.

Justin Paisley, a Tamaqua native, is a profile technician at Highwood USA in Tamaqua, which manufactures outdoor living products.

“We evacuated out the front where our evacuation spot is and the fire happened in the back of the plant,” said Paisley. “I just heard people say there’s a big fire and we had to get out.

“We do monthly safety things, they handled it very well. Managers did roll call and we communicated with fire police. ... Nobody really panicked, I tell you what, people were accountable for everybody, they wanted to make sure everyone was out, and that was the most important thing - everybody got out safe. The first responders did a hell of a job.”

Area residents were asked to stay inside their homes. Air monitors are in place throughout the area but have not detected toxic levels of fumes.

Crewell said he does not know the chemicals used on site, but requested Schuylkill EMA because of the potential for such an occurrence.

Firefighters were decontaminated as a precaution with water being sprayed on their gear.

Earlier in the day, Rush Township issued a warning to residents to stay away from the area around Walmart, while student and staff at St. Jerome Regional School were instructed to shelter in place.

“We did put a code red out to residents to avoid the Walmart area if they could,” said Debbie DelFranco, Rush Township secretary-treasurer.

DelFranco said the Rush supervisors are aware of the situation.

“I am submitting a declaration of disaster. We’ve had other municipality departments come into play also to help us with that.”

Hometown Volunteer Fire Company also asked residents to avoid the area to allow crews better access. Smoke could be seen as far away as Broad Street in Tamaqua and the east end of Nesquehoning.

Alicia Silliman, Administrator of the Hometown Nursing & Rehabilitation Center, said there was no plan to evacuate, but they continued to monitor the situation throughout the day.

“The fire company performed air quality testing and all is good,” she added.