No one was injured when an industrial fire broke out Friday morning at the American Zinc Recycling Corporation in Palmerton.

Borough Fire Chief Jason Behler said firefighters responded shortly after the incident started around 11:30 a.m. at the Befesa site in the 900 block of Delaware Avenue.

“They were working on the belt system inside the building,” Behler said. “They had a hot work permit pulled, they were doing some welding and it got out of control.”

Behler said the cause of the fire is accidental.

He said that the majority of the damage was done to the large conveyor belts used to transport material when they off-load it from the railcars.

Behler said firefighters had the fire under control at 12:59 p.m., and as of 3 p.m. were still on scene conducting overhaul operations to make sure there were no problems.

He added the scene was being turned over to Befesa.

Behler said also assisting at the scene were the Aquashicola Fire Department, Bowmanstown Fire Department, Diamond Fire Company of Walnutport RIT Team, Northampton Fire Company RIT Team, Nesquehoning Fire Department, Lehighton Fire Department, Franklin Township Fire Department, Polk Township Fire Company, Palmerton Ambulance, Lehighton Ambulance and Lehigh Township Fire Company, which was on standby at the Palmerton Fire Department station to cover calls in the area in case something were to have arisen.

Behler described how things were handled when working in an industrial fire in a confined area.

“Because of the type of call and nature of the call in when we decided to bring in the second alarm,” he said. “It’s tough during the day for volunteer departments, so (we decided) to cycle people out to give them more of a break and make sure the proper resources were here if they were needed.”

Behler was complimentary of the various emergency personnel crews who assisted on scene.

“Extremely thankful for Befesa employees, everybody that responded to the scene,” he said. “The combined effort went flawlessly, everybody worked extremely well together; I couldn’t be more pleased or proud of the outcome.”