Newburyport firefighters rushed to a chemical plant late Friday night after a three-alarm fire broke out, triggering a hazardous-materials response that pulled in crews from across the region. The blaze was reported around 11:10 p.m. at a facility on Mulliken Way, and no injuries were reported before the scene cleared roughly three hours later.
Newburyport Fire responded to the chemical plant at 7 Mulliken Way at approximately 11:10 p.m., according to an update from news.jgpr.net. Because the building housed a chemical facility, officials also declared a hazardous-materials incident, bringing in the Massachusetts Department of Fire Services Hazardous Materials Emergency Response Division to assist on scene, per the same report. Some outlets reported the address with a slightly different spelling, as NBC Boston listed the location as 7 Mullikan Way.
When crews arrived, they found heavy smoke pouring from the building, and the sprinkler system inside had already kicked in, NBC Boston reported. Officials called for a three-alarm response to handle the fire, according to WCVB. No injuries were reported, and firefighters had the blaze extinguished with the scene cleared by about 2:30 a.m. Saturday, per NBC Boston's account.
Who Owns the Building Remains Unclear
Exactly which company operates the plant is not fully settled in the reporting. WCVB identified the facility as Strem Chemicals, while NBC Boston reported that the fire department itself did not name the company, noting only that 7 Mullikan Way is the address listed for Strem Chemicals. Boston 25 News also covered the fire, confirming crews battled a three-alarm blaze at a chemical plant in Newburyport, according to Boston 25 News.
The cause of Friday night's fire remains under investigation by the Newburyport Fire Department and the District 6 Fire Investigators Hazardous Materials Team, the jgpr.net update states. Fighting the fire required substantial outside help: mutual aid came from fire departments in Newbury, Merrimac, West Newbury, Amesbury and Salisbury, along with Cataldo Ambulance and Rehab 5, according to the same report. Station coverage back in Newburyport was handled by fire departments from Groveland, Georgetown, Ipswich and Seabrook, New Hampshire, per that update.
A City With a History of Chemical Plant Trouble
Friday's fire is not the first time a Newburyport chemical facility has drawn a major emergency response, though the evidence does not establish any connection between this incident and past ones at a different address. A chemical fire at the PCI Synthesis/Seqens plant in June 2021 sent smoke pouring out of roof vents and prompted its own hazardous-materials team response, according to WBUR. That same facility was shut down in 2021 after a fire that damaged the building's roof without injuring anyone, per Patch.
The PCI Synthesis/Seqens plant also saw a series of explosions in 2020 that authorities attributed to a chemical reaction, and federal regulators flagged serious safety violations there a year earlier. OSHA found serious violations in how the company managed highly hazardous chemicals in 2019, WBUR reported. The most severe incident came on May 4, 2023, when an explosion at the facility left four workers injured and a fifth missing, according to Patch's reporting at the time.
That missing worker, identified as 62-year-old Jack O'Keefe of Methuen, was later confirmed killed in the explosion, while the four other injured workers were treated and released from a local hospital, according to WCVB. The blast caused major structural damage at the Seqens and PCI Synthesis facility on Opportunity Way and was described as the second such incident there in three years, per WCVB's coverage. Friday's fire on Mulliken Way involved a different address, and nothing in the current reporting ties it to those earlier incidents.
