Spalding Drive remains closed after fire

By Mike Morris

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Gwinnett County firefighters were in the final stages of battling a large, two-alarm business fire Friday afternoon near Norcross.

Fire crews found heavy smoke and flames coming from the two-story office building in the 5000 block of Spalding Drive near Peachtree Parkway when they arrived about 3 a.m., Gwinnett fire Capt. Tommy Rutledge said.

By 6 a.m., Rutledge said crews were still working to extinguish the fire, although "the bulk of the flames have been knocked down."

Crews were still on the scene at noon and Spalding Drive remained closed in both directions.

The building, which is across the street from a Gwinnett fire station, houses administrative offices for AkzoNobel, a car refinishing /coatings company.

There were no immediate reports of injuries. Rutledge said that representatives of AkzoNobel were on the scene, and have told firefighters that there should not have been anyone in the building, as there are no overnight operations.

Rutledge said that when firefighters at Station 4 got the initial call from an alarm company, they “went out of the bunk room into the apparatus bay and immediately saw an orange glow from the office building across the street, so they knew they had a serious fire even before they responded to the scene.”

Rutledge said that the 150-by-150-foot building suffered heavy fire damage and partially collapsed. The cause of the blaze has not been determined, he said.

Charles Clineff, who has worked for the company for about 10 years, said a friend called him early Friday to tell him about the fire.

“It’s pretty shocking to wake up and might not have a job,” he said.

Coworker Cindy Reis said she got a 5:30 a.m. phone call about the fire.

“We drove over here to see what was going on, to see how bad the damage was,” Reis said.

“The first thing I thought was, we’ve got to get the phone lines up,” she said. “You’ve got to service your customers no matter what happens."

Staff photographer John Spink contributed to this article.