It looked bigger than it was.

On Friday night, Oxford firefighters were dispatched to a reported fire at MSP Industries, located at 45 W. Oakwood Rd., just east of M-24. Because it’s an industrial building, firefighters from Metamora and Addison also responded to the scene to provide mutual aid.

Upon arrival, Oxford Fire Chief Pete Scholz said an MSP supervisor informed them some cutting with a torch was being done inside the building when “sparks got sucked up” into an exhaust fan on the roof. The fan caught fire.

Scholz explained oil, grease and graphite dust from inside the facility had collected in this fan and “that’s what ignited.”

MSP workers tried to put it out with fire extinguishers, but were unsuccessful.

“It kept flaring back up and that’s when they called us,’ Scholz said, “You couldn’t see anything from the ground. When the crew got up there, they said it was still smoldering and smoking. They ended up tearing apart the whole fan in order to get to it and put it all out.”

The chief noted there was no damage to either the roof or the building’s interior and no one was injured.

In addition to receiving mutual aid at the scene from two neighboring departments, Orion firefighters covered Oxford’s main station with an engine while Brandon firefighters provided medical coverage.