Evacuations near SPS Technologies site as crews battle ‘unpredictable’ fire; Jenkintown, Abington, Cheltenham schools to remain closed Wednesday

First, there were reports of explosions Monday night at the SPS Technologies factory in Abington.

Then, a four-alarm fire and plumes of smoke that drifted across the neighborhood well into Tuesday morning, triggering a shelter-in-place order for everyone within a one-mile radius.

On Tuesday afternoon, residents living near the industrial complex received an urgent message from their local government officials: Get out if you can. Now.

Abington Township said in an update at 8 p.m. Tuesday that the fire at SPS Technologies "remains active and investigations are ongoing."

Residents and others in a one-mile radius are asked to continue sheltering in place.

The voluntary evacuation recommendation also remains in effect. An evacuation shelter in the gymnasium at Cheltenham High School will stay open through the night.

Hours after a voluntary evacuation notice went out to some 247 homes surrounding SPS Technologies, an emergency shelter set up by county officials and the American Red Cross of Southeastern Pennsylvania in Cheltenham High School remained largely unused.

Only a handful of people had stopped by to check out resources, said Red Cross spokesperson Alana Mauger.

“People can get a meal, snacks, water, charge devices,” she said. “If they need to sleep here, we have those accommodations as well.”

SPS Technologies’ sprinkler system was “out of service” due to a maintenance issue at the time of the fire, Abington’s Director of Fire and Emergency Management Services Tom McAneney said during a news conference Tuesday.

The company “followed all precautions that are required under the law,” said McAneney. “They had a fire watch in place, and...they have a fire brigade on site … [which] allows them to be able to continue to operate even when the sprinkler system was out of service.”

SPS Technologies could not be immediately reached for comment.

SPS Technologies’ factory floor is covered in “a lot of flammable stuff,” according to Glenn Meyers, who worked for 37 years as machine operator at the manufacturer on Highland Avenue in Abington.

“Gas lines from the heat [treatment] furnace could explode,” said Meyers, who retired in 2022. “Oil falls off the machines and leaks from the pans that carry parts … A good portion of the flooring is just oiled soaked wood that would burn easily.”

Meyers said he could remember witnessing “six or seven fires” during his time at SPS, and that they happened often enough for the facility to have briefly had its own fire trucks. Once, a coworker caused a small explosion by placing titanium into a wood chipper. Another time, Meyers recalled, a fire broke out on the factory floor.

Officials changed course and conducted a voluntary evacuation in the immediate area of the fire out of an abundance of caution, Abington Police Chief Patrick Molloy said at a news conference Tuesday afternoon.

The evacuation notice came hours after a flare up Tuesday morning, and authorities were uncertain whether additional ones could occur as firefighters continued to work to place the fire under control. While officials had not yet determined the cause of the fire or where in the SPS Technologies complex it began, Molloy said that it remained "unpredictable" due to the chemical nature of the blaze.

About 247 homes were included the evacuation area, and a majority of individuals chose to leave the area on their own and did not require transportation assistance in order to get out, officials said.

Even if the Abington facility contained no hazardous materials, smoke and fumes from a fire in a large, older building can pose a serious risk for people nearby, said Jamie Garfield, a professor of thoracic medicine and surgery at Temple University's Lung Center.

"Buildings are made with heavy metals, and the combustion process will release small particles," she said. An N95 or KN95 mask can filter out particles larger than 3 microns, she said, but some small particles can slip through.

The air quality index, a measure of the safety of the air we breathe, can help determine some risks, but does not measure all hazardous substances in the air, Garfield said. For example, standard AQI measures do not differentiate between the types of particulate matter that could be in the air.

Service remained suspended on SEPTA's West Trenton, Lansdale-Doylestown, and Warminster Regional Rail lines as of Tuesday afternoon, the agency said.

Supplemental service for those three lines will be run on the Chestnut Hill East and Fox Chase lines, with trains running every half hour. Additional updates are available via the SEPTA website and the agency's app.

SEPTA previously said it had suspended service on the West Trenton, Lansdale-Doylestown, and Warminster Regional Rail lines due to the impacts the response to the fire at SPS Technologies had on its Jenkintown station. A timeline for reopening the lines was not immediately available.

Philadelphia officials said Tuesday afternoon that multiple city agencies are assessing any impact from the four-alarm fire at the SPS Technologies facility in Abington.

The Montgomery County factory that makes parts for aviation and aerospace applications is about two miles from the Philadelphia border.

“The Health Department has dispatched inspectors to the area to collect air samples to assess air quality and the potential for any threat,” said a statement by the city. “At this time, no specific hazardous substances have been identified.”

As Montgomery County officials gathered in Blue Bell Tuesday morning to celebrate their work from the past year and look toward the future, recognition of the disaster playing out miles away cast a shadow.

County Commissioners, who provided “state of the county” speeches Tuesday morning were quick to express their thanks for fire officials in Montgomery County and from surrounding areas who worked quickly to combat the blaze.

“We have incredible, incredible fire services throughout Montgomery County and when we have an event like that, we don’t want to see that but we know that we have the people that are ready to go and they run to that fire and they address it,” Republican Commissioner Tom DiBello said.

Aqua Pennsylvania says there are no water quality concerns for the area surrounding the fire at SPS industrial complex in Abington, a company spokesperson confirmed.

Officials are continuing to monitor air quality and water runoff as firefighters are working to keep the 4-alarm fire under control.

There are no disruptions to water service either, said company spokesperson Pat Wenger, though there have been some complaints of lower water pressure in Wyndmoor.

By 11:45 a.m., the skies over SPS Technologies were clear again.

Dark smoke had begun pluming from the factory around 10:30 a.m., and officials confirmed that fire crews were battling an active blaze after it initially appeared the scene was under control this morning.

That effort lasted a little over an hour; fire trucks rushed toward the smoke and water was seen spraying over the top of the structure.

As smoke from what appeared to be a new blaze at SPS Technologies rose high into the sky around 10:30 a.m., Mary Harmon watched in awe from her front porch.

"It breaks my heart that this keeps happening," the 81-year-old Glenside resident said.

Harmon said this is not the first blaze she's witnessed at the company's complex, which sits adjacent to her home across a large, grassy playing field.

What appeared to be a contained blaze this morning at the SPS Technologies plant is no longer the case.

Plumes of smoke could be seen billowing from the building beginning at around 10:30 a.m. Tuesday. Fire sirens are blaring and water is shooting from cannons.

"We are aware of increased activity at the site," Ashley McIlvaine, Abington Assistant Township Manager, said. "The site is an active fire and an investigation is underway."

In addition to environmental violations, SPS has been cited repeatedly in recent years over dangerous industrial mishaps.

In 2018, an employee was hospitalized after they lacerated three fingers while manually polishing a bolt that was rapidly spinning on an industrial lathe. The federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration fined SPS nearly $13,000 for hazardous workplace conditions, noting that the company had been cited for similar issues a few years earlier.

In 2019, another employee had his thumb tip amputated when a factory press inadvertently cycled while they were reaching inside to retrieve a product.

Founded in Philadelphia in 1903 as Standard Pressed Steel Co., SPS was famous for the armor-piercing bullet cores and other WWII military supplies it manufactured. It’s been in Abington since 1920, and makes metal fasteners and parts for aerospace and aviation companies.

Founder Howard “H.T.” Hallowell Sr. and his son Howard Jr. ran the company in its early years, buying and building other plants around the U.S. and Europe, and expanded to make instruments and materials for medical and magnetic equipment. 

The company was renamed SPS Technologies in 1978. 

Lindsay Weicher and her husband had just put their three-year-old son to bed when they heard a loud bang outside their home across the street from SPS Technologies in Jenkintown Monday night.

“We didn’t think anything of it. It sounded like maybe a door had slammed open next door,” said Weicher, 39, who had lived across the street from the industrial metal manufacturer since 2019.

That all changed when Weicher heard a barrage of sirens. When she opened her door to investigate, said Weicher, she saw bright orange flames emanating from the factory.

As emergency responders continued to fight the fire Tuesday morning Montgomery County officials gathered in Blue Bell where all three county commissioners were scheduled to speak at a “State of Montgomery County” event.

Democratic Commissioner Jamila Winder began the program by acknowledging the blaze and thanking first responders for their work.

Winder said officials from the county’s emergency management, hazardous materials response, incident support and emergency communications teams were at the scene and would stay as long as needed.

The Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) is on site, said DEP spokesperson Stephanie Berardi. But she had no further information.

SPS Technologies, owned by Berkshire Hathaway, is well known to the DEP and U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).

The 32-acre property is surrounded by rail lines and the Tacony and Tookany creeks to the south and east. The facility has been active since at least 1903 for industrial purposes, and is now used to make precision metal fasteners and special machined parts for the aviation and aerospace industries.

The West Trenton, Warminster, and Lansdale-Doylestown lines on SEPTA's regional rail remain suspended Tuesday due to the fire at the SPS Technologies industrial complex in Jenkintown, a spokesperson for SEPTA said.

The four-alarm fire at the complex has caused the Jenkintown station, a hub for many of the regional rail lines traveling toward the Philadelphia area from the north, to shut down, causing the suspensions, said Andrew Busch, spokesperson for SEPTA.

As of Tuesday morning, there is no timeline for service to be restored, he said.

Police received multiple 911 calls of an explosion at SPS Technologies industrial complex on Highland Avenue in Abington, shortly after 9:30 p.m. Abington Police Chief Patrick Molloy said at a Tuesday morning news conference. When first responders arrived, they were met with multiple explosions at the complex, he said.

SPS Technologies was founded more than a century ago as Standard Pressed Steel Company. The Abington complex is described as 560,000 square feet and is a source for parts throughout the aerospace industry.

SPS Technologies manufactures fasteners and other small metal equipment for the aerospace and other industries, said Abington Fire Marshal Chris Platz.

A shelter-in-place was still active for a one-mile radius and nearby schools were closed Tuesday after a 4-alarm industrial fire ripped through an aerospace parts supplier in Montgomery County on Monday night, officials said.

Shortly after 9:30 p.m., police received multiple 911 calls of an explosion at SPS Technologies industrial complex on Highland Avenue, in Jenkintown, said Abington Police Chief Patrick Molloy at a Tuesday news conference. When first responders arrived, they were met with multiple explosions at the complex, he said.

Firefighters from 68 fire companies responded to battle the blaze, he said, and many were still on scene Tuesday morning trying to put the fire fully under control. As of Tuesday morning, no injuries were reported, he said.