DELTA, Ohio — A large fire with smoke that could be seen more than 10 miles away was completely extinguished in Delta Monday night. This is the second time in six months MetalX has had a major fire.
The fire was detected in a pile of scrap metal near the shredder at ts processing facility around 1:30 p.m.
Around a dozen different departments responded to the fire at some point, according to a Delta Fire Chief Scott Smith.
The flames were under control within a few hours and the fire was completely extinguished by early evening. There were no injuries or damage to property or equipment.
A press release from MetalX Tuesday stated that there were no issues with water run-off or air quality as a result.
The fire seems to have been started by combustible material that was embedded in a load of obsolete scrap that had been received Monday morning.
“The fire started in a small pile of sheet iron, which is a grade of obsolete scrap consisting of old metal siding, auto parts, whole autos, appliances, and similar types of scrap.” MetalX VP of operations Clyde Billips said. “Fire breaks within the feed stock receiving area prevented the fire from spreading to other scrap metal piles, so the fire itself was well-contained, but the visible smoke was a result of the non-metallic items in that grade of scrap. Our facility does not accept any hazardous material, so there are no concerns about impact to human or animal health."
The same facility had previously caught fire in September. Crews created an action plan following that incident that helped them when flames erupted Monday afternoon.
“We worked with company officials and we talked to them and got them to build fire breaks where they separated all the piles so once one pile caught on fire we were able to separate everything and keep those fire breaks to keep the fire from going to the bigger piles,” Smith said.
Fire crews from across Northwest Ohio, led by the Delta Fire Chief immediately began attacking it from all sides with the help of Metal X employees.
“They can pick material up, they can throw it somewhere and they are literally moving everything aside, breaking up the piles, getting the water down in the piles. They have been instrumental in helping us get that fire out,” Smith said.
While no one was injured, crews still had to deal with large amounts of debris that could have been dangerous.
“Some of the piles on the back side and the front side before they started pulling them around earlier I would guesstimate were in the neighborhood of 40-50 feet tall. Some of the dangers that go along with that is as they’re pulling this apart we have to make sure firefighters are not within a collapse zone,” Pvt. Sterling Rahe with the Toledo Fire Department said.
Many of the crews on scene were also more familiar with the layout of Metal X, since they were on scene in September.
“We are aware of the complex, we have a god layout of the complex we didn’t have before, so we actually positioned accordingly,” Rahe said.
Some locals came by to check the flames out, but didn’t seem too worried.
“If we didn’t have scrap yards can you imagine where all the scrap may be laying in barnyards or wherever? And these people are making good use out of it,” Delta resident Bill Pacak said.
Chief Smith said the EPA was on the scene since the early afternoon monitoring air and water quality.
In response to the fire, Pike Delta York School District brought children in from afternoon recess. They weren’t allowed outside until dismissal.
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