No injuries were reported in a fire in a factory located off Peace Road in Sycamore Wednesday afternoon.

The fire occurred at Tate & Lyle Custom Ingredients, 1631 S. Prairie Drive, around 2 p.m.

Sycamore Fire Chief Bill Riddle said a machine overheated, causing the blaze, but he did not know what caused the malfunction.

Riddle said Sycamore activated the first level of Mutual Aid Box Alarm System, a system where multiple fire personnel from surrounding fire departments come to help in situations such as this.

Fire Departments from Cortland, Genoa-Kingston, DeKalb, Maple Park, Hampshire, Burlington and Elburn were all on scene and making sure the fire was out throughout the building, Riddle said.

Riddle toured the building later and said afterward there was “serious damage” to the machine. He said the machine is equipped with a fire suppression system that turns on when a malfunction occurs to prevent widespread damage.

Tom George, vice president of ingredient systems for Tate & Lyle, said the location of the fire happened in an addition to the building added a year ago, and the machine had been in production for only a few months.

“The technology is still fairly new,” George said. “So determining the cause will take some time.”

The building was fully evacuated between 60 and 90 seconds, George said.

“The evacuation plan was very successful,” he said. “Every employee is trained extensively in the event of an emergency.”

George said the building production includes “combining a single ingredient into a compound.”

The fire happened around a shift change, and those on first shift were sent home shortly after the building was evacuated, he said.

George said work in the part of the building where the fire occurred will continue only when the extent of the damage is known, but he said he expects the rest of the building to be functional and safe.

“The main problem is because we make a food product, we have to make sure there is no contamination,” he said.

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