‘Stubborn’ blaze lingers in bales of recycled paper at southeast city plant

Fire crews are battling a “stubborn” fire at a recycling plant in southeast Calgary that broke out Tuesday night.

Battalion Chief Bruce Barrs said the fire department was called at about 8:40 p.m. to the ECCO recycling plant at Quarry Park Boulevard and 24th Street S.E.

Barrs said the “deep-seated fire, which is proving to be stubborn” is located within stacks of recyclable paper bales. He said track hoes are being used to tear apart the pile of recyclables “piece by piece” to try to expose the fire.

With no hydrant at the facility, Barrs said crews were shuttling water to the fire throughout Tuesday night. At its peak, there were four fire apparatus and 14 firefighters at the scene.

Crews remained at the scene well into the afternoon dealing with “deep-seated smouldering” within the bales of paper.

The fire remained active as of 4 p.m. Wednesday.

“We’re still on scene. The recycling material is still being moved around so that we can get to hot spots,” Calgary Fire Department spokeswoman Carol Henke said.

“It’s a challenging fire due to the amount of compressed recycling materials and how large the area is. That is complicating our firefighting efforts right now.”

There have been no injuries and the cause is unknown, said fire officials, but plant co-owner Alec Mcdougall said it was likely sparked by lightning.

In the earlier years of the plant’s 27-year life it was hit by about a dozen fires, he said, though there hasn’t been one in at least a decade since the material mix was changed and security tightened up.

But in this case, “the only way you can put these fires out is to dig out the material, spread it out and watch it for days,” said Mcdougall, adding plant employees were assisting fire crews.

The fire will probably lead to 50 tonnes of once-recyclable material being landfilled, he said.

Air quality at the site is being monitored by the fire department hazardous materials team.