Pat Donahue/Times-EnterpriseThomasville Fire Rescue crews keep an eye on Flowers Baking Company after a fire in an oven's exhaust stack Saturday night. 

THOMASVILLE — Calls to 911 came rushing in Saturday night from people seeing smoke in the Flowers Baking Company vicinity on South Madison Street and the surrounding area.

The smoke resulted from a fire in the insulation of a bakery oven’s exhaust stack.

“The bakery employees took swift action, immediately notifying the fire department and evacuating the bakery,” said Paul Baltzer, Flowers Foods Inc. vice president of communications.

Thomasville Fire/Rescue received the fire call at 9:26 p.m. Saturday. Smoke was coming from the roof when firefighters arrived, said Tim Connell, fire/rescue chief fire marshal.

Connell said flames were coming through the exhaust flue.

He said firefighters found the fire 90 percent self-contained because of the blaze being in an enclosed oven stack.

Firefighters, who were at the scene until 11 p.m., doused hot spots until it was determined the blaze had not spread from the stack.

Baltzer said safety is the company’s top priority.

“There were no injuries and no damage to the bakery,” he said. “The line affected by the stack fire was restarted on Sunday morning.”

Said Connell, “We’re fortunate it was not any worse than it was.”

A large fire at the bakery would not only have been destructive, but it could have put a lot of people out of work, Connell said.

“We are very grateful to the Thomasville fire department and other first responders for their quick response and assistance, and we thank the bakery team for acting so quickly,” Baltzer said. 

Senior reporter Patti Dozier can be reached at (229) 226-2400, ext. 1820