Vicksburg Firefighter Paramedic Mike Beauman sprays the hose as fellow firefighters help to put out a fire at Rouse Polymerics Inc. on U.S. 61 South Wednesday. (Melanie Duncan Thortis/The Vicksburg Post)

Firefighters took less than an hour Wednesday to put out a fire at what remains of the Rouse Polymerics building that was the scene of a five-fatality industrial accident eight months ago.

Lingering rubber dust was believed to have been reignited by a cutting torch being used to take apart the structure that burned after an explosion in May, Vicksburg Fire Department Capt. Erron Flowers said. Some of the dust Rouse produced in its old facility on U.S. 61 South remains in and around the rubble as it is being removed.

“There were no injuries,” Flowers said.

Employees of Dirtworks Inc., the company hired by Rouse to demolish the building, were using cutting torches to remove pipes when sparks apparently fell into a separate pipe and began smoldering, company vice president John Lee said.

He said the workers thought the sparks were extinguished, but when they returned from lunch, a blaze had started.

In addition to the five who died after being hurt at the scene May 16, seven others received medical treatment lasting from a few hours to several months.

Michael Rouse said that while the old structure is being demolished, a new one is being built on the same property. The new plant has not begun operation yet and was not damaged by Wednesday’s fire, he said.

The company has resumed some production, but not at its U.S. 61 site, Rouse added. It employs about 14 people, down from the 100 it employed at the time of the fire, but up from the fewer than 10 who remained at its lowest count.

“We’ve started with certification (of the company’s process) and making some small runs,” Rouse said. “Our goal is to be on-line by February or no later than March.”

The plant was kept idle as local, state and federal officials completed their investigations of the fire. Six months after the fire, the federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration said it had found 24 safety violations, including two it called willful. The settlement OSHA and Rouse reached included a fine of $187,680, down $22,920 from the fine OSHA originally proposed, and the removal of the two willful characterizations.

Rouse has said OSHA’s investigation did not identify any defect as having caused the explosion.

At least six lawsuits have been filed in the explosion. Five actions have been filed on behalf of four of the men who died after the fire. A sixth suit has been filed by one of the burn victims who remained in intensive care the longest.

“I understand the lawsuits, but they’re wrong,” Rouse said. “But we will leave that up to the lawyers. It would be very wrong to destroy this company and its technology,” Rouse said.

The company holds a patent on its process, which grinds scraps of rubber, including old tires, into material for new tires and other products.