BRISTOL TOWNSHIP - Frank Greene and six other firefighters were inside the burning business garage when the metal door behind them rolled shut.

The words that came to Greene's mind in that instant Monday afternoon can't be published in a family newspaper.

"The spring broke on the door and it just came down. I heard it. It was scary. We couldn't see [anything]," he said. "It was pitch black."

Greene, a 27-year firefighter with Bristol Township's Edgely station, said he dropped to the ground, turned and felt for the door. Luckily, it was only a few feet away, he said. The others trapped inside - Lt. Ryan Flanagan, Ed Singley and Kevin Pugh, also of Edgely station, and Lt. Chris Rovenolt, Dave Smith and Brian Stanton, of Levittown No. 1 - headed for the door. Outside, Edgely firefighter Carl Pierce and others pried at the door's bottom panels with pike poles. The combined effort got the firefighters out in about a minute, Pierce said.

"I heard the door come down," Pierce said. "Everyone was screaming they were trapped."

No one was seriously hurt, but Pugh was treated at Lower Bucks Hospital for burns on his hands, Edgely fire Chief Kevin Flanagan said.

The fire at 2:13 p.m. Monday destroyed 1430-C Manning Boulevard, the rented workspace of Effluent Retrieval Services Inc., a commercial truck washing company.

An unidentified employee who was welding before the fire started managed to escape with singed eyebrows, officials said. The worker was also treated at Lower Bucks Hospital. Just how the fire started is under investigation by the Bucks County fire marshal. Bristol Township building inspector Harry Goldman said the company has rented the space for about two years.

Company President Jonathan Beagle would only confirm that one of his workers was inside the building when the fire started. The cinderblock building is divided three ways and firewalls separate each section, of which one was vacant, said a man who identified himself as the building's owner.

A flatbed trailer that held two pressure washers caught fire, and someone tried to drive out the trailer before the firefighters arrived. The flames, however, devoured the tail end of the trailer as well as one of the washers.

Flanagan said the crews found a heavy amount of fire inside the building. Besides Edgely and Levittown No. 1, stations such as Levittown No. 2, Goodwill Hose Co., Third District, Fairless Hills and Tullytown also responded.

Two crews, each carrying a hose, went inside through the back, Flanagan said.

"We were giving it a good knock down" before the door slammed shut, Singley recalled.

Flanagan said the slammed door punctured Levittown No. 1's hose and pinched the hose for the Edgely firefighters.

Luckily, everyone wasn't seriously hurt, he said.

The fire was under control in about 26 minutes, according to the Bucks County 911-call center.

Harry Yanoshak can be reached at 215-949-4203 or hyanoshak@phillyBurbs.com.