Officials from the Petal Fire Department have determined that an overloaded or malfunctioning dryer unit was the cause of a small fire at the Soap N Suds laundromat on North Main Street in Petal.
Petal Fire Chief Joe Hendry said firefighters arrived just before noon on April 27 to the laundromat. The damage was limited to the dryer itself, along with the clothes that were inside that unit.
“We had a dryer that the clothes in the dryer caught fire, and it pretty much ruined that unit, for sure,” he said. “We just cleared the smoke out and removed all the clothes and got them out, the ones that were still smoking. Clothes make a mess – they make a big, heavy smoke.
“It filled that building up; it was pretty full, as far as you couldn’t see to go in to do anything.”
It took less than 30 minutes for firefighters to extinguish the blaze at the laundromat.
“Two of the units were there really quick, but the two units that were out on the highway near the school took a little bit longer to get there,” Hendry said.
Firefighters were able to shut off the gas to the one defective dryer unit, and the laundromat should be up and functioning as usual.
“The owner was there cleaning up when we left, and he was going to take that unit out,” Hendry said. “The source of the odor is what’s left of that unit, so he took it on out of there.”
