MATTAWA — A major fire hit the wastewater treatment plant for the city of Mattawa on Thursday morning.

Grant County Fire District 8 received a call from a city employee at 5:34 a.m. Thursday morning to the plant. According to District 8 Fire Chief David Patterson, the employee arrived at work and saw smoke coming out from under the eaves of the building.

When crews arrived on the scene, the exterior of the building was over 600 degrees Fahrenheit. Fire officials believe that the building had been ablaze for several hours before the fire was detected.

The blaze destroyed half of the 2,000-square-foot metal building and most of the equipment inside, according to Patterson. It took fire crews an hour and a half to extinguish the blaze and an additional hour to ensure the blaze wouldn’t reignite.

The initial speculation is that faulty equipment may have caused the fire.

The Mattawa Waste Water Treatment Plant was not equipped with fire alarms, smoke detectors or a sprinkler system.

While Grant County Fire District 8 will not be conducting the investigation into the cause of the fire, it will supply pictures it took to inspectors and insurance representatives.

City crews, along with the Washington State Department of Ecology and Gray and Osborne, Inc., an engineering firm, were on hand Thursday to deal with the situation. By Thursday afternoon, the Department of Ecology said that the UV disinfection process was working again and that the lift stations were on generator power. A minor sewage spill did occur at the plant while sewer service was being reestablished. The Department of Health is reported to be working with the city on the cleanup.

Rachal Pinkerton may be reached via email at rpinkerton@columbiabasinherald.com.