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SALT LAKE CITY — Spontaneous combustion of oil-soaked cotton towels is being blamed for a fire that broke out at Salt Lake Fire Station 2 earlier this month.

On March 3, fire erupted on the second floor of the station, 270 W. 300 North, causing an estimated $500,000 damage. Fire Station No. 2 is expected to be unusable for three to four months. Nine firefighters were taken to a local hospital as a precaution to be treated for possible smoke inhalation.

Monday, the Salt Lake City Fire Department announced that towels used to clean a grill earlier in the day that were thrown in a laundry hamper in a utility room sparked the fire. The grill was cleaned at 6:30 p.m. and again at 8:30 p.m. on March 2. The fire broke out just before 1:30 a.m. A smoke alarm on the second floor alerted firefighters to the incident, said Salt Lake fire spokesman Jasen Asay.

Asay said the incident was "proof accidents can happen anywhere, even in fire stations," but said no disciplinary action would be taken against any firefighters.

The department, however, plans to make a few changes in order to prevent such an accident from happening again. Oxygen-free containers for rags and towels soaked in combustible materials such as oil and gas will now be placed in each station, he said. In addition, smoke detectors in each fire station will now be integrated, meaning if one goes off, they will all go off. In the Fire Station No. 2 incident, the smoke detectors on the second floor where the fire started went off, but the smoke detectors on the upper floors where firefighters were sleeping did not.

Asay while Fire Station No. 2 is being repaired, the fire truck and medical engine normally housed there will be at different stations, just as they were when the station underwent remodeling a few years ago.

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