Employees at ALCOA/Ivex were scheduled to go back to work Thursday evening, two days after a main transformer sparked a fire outside the plant at 660 Barkeyville Road in Pine Township.

"We have the (new) transformer in place and working. We've worked around the clock to get the place back up and running," said operations manager Boyd Selby.

A loose connection in the transformer at 6:45 a.m. Tuesday sent almost 40 employees home from work. No one was hurt in the fire, Selby said, adding that the plant employs about 200 people.

He said a damage estimate is pending, but since the fire was caught right at the transformer, only the transformer and some lead wires going into the building from it were damaged.

Ivex, which makes plastic and food packaging products for the bakery and agricultural industry, came to the area in 1989 and was purchased by ALCOA in 2001, Selby said.