Salisbury recycling plant fire requires large effort to extinguish

Around 2:30 Wednesday afternoon, the first of nearly 50 firefighters from seven different companies arrived at what had been reported as both a vehicle fire and a structure fire. They quickly discovered it was actually a debris fire at Eagle Recycling in Salisbury.

“When units arrived on scene, they found a large pile of debris on fire.” And “Anytime a large pile of debris is piled up, it becomes difficult to extinguish.” Said Salisbury Fire Chief Rick Hoppes.

He also tells 47 ABC that the workers inside evacuated and did not suffer any injuries.

That wasn’t quite the case however, for two fire fighters, who sustained minor injuries.

Hoppes described the difficulty of dealing with debris fires, saying, “Extinguishment is always the problem because of the pile of debris, but it’s also chaotic at times.”

To help contain the fire, two public works vehicles helped move debris to allow water to get to the root of the fire.

“The real problem for us was that we didn’t want it extend into the building so deployed a whole bunch of resources to try to keep that from happening.” Said Chief Hoppes.

As for the damage done to the plant, we’re told that trash, recyclables, and a trash compacter were significantly damaged.