New Westminster firefighters quickly controlled a fire that broke out at a local recycling plant Sunday — but it took eight hours to extinguish the stubborn blaze completely, according to the fire department.
New Westminster Fire & Rescue Services got a flurry of calls just before 7 p.m. for reports of a structure fire at Urban Impact on Capilano Way, according to assistant deputy fire Chief Brad Davie.
At the scene, he said crews found fire and smoke on the left side of the building.
“Flames were reaching up beyond the roof on the outside of the building and up to the roof on the inside of the building, and there was thick black smoke that apparently could be seen from miles away,” Davie said.
Once crews determined there was no one inside, they quickly contained the fire, pouring water onto large piles of burning recycling material.
“The damage to the building was actually quite minor,” Davie said.
The burning piles of paper and plastic were a different matter.
A loader had to be called in to turn over the smouldering heaps.
“The fire gets all through the debris and down to the bottom of the debris, and you basically have to roll the debris over to put all the fire out,” Davie said.
That task wasn’t complete until 3:05 a.m. Monday.
At one point, the fire department’s entire complement of on-duty firefighters was at the scene, and off-duty personnel had to be called in to provide coverage to the rest of the city.
Urban Impact was closed when the fire broke out, but there had been a security guard on site, according to Davie.
The cause of the fire is being investigated.
