GALION — Multiple fire departments battled a blaze at a rubber recycling facility just blocks from uptown Galion on Thursday morning.
Just before 9 a.m., the Galion Fire Department requested aid from the Bucyrus Fire Department in battling a fire at Innovative Recycling, located at 352 South St.
Both departments utilized their ladder trucks and other water tankers to douse the rubber pile but were unable to keep the flames from reaching a nearby pile of wooden pallets.
The fire continued to move toward a tree line and creek where the Jefferson Township Volunteer Fire Department was stationed with a water truck to combat the fire from spreading to a nearby residential neighborhood.
Meanwhile, the Crestline Fire Department covered calls for the City of Galion while GFD firefighters were battling the fire at the recycling facility.
Crews continued fighting the fire hours after the initial hotspot was detected.
According to Jereme Willig, a member of the family that owns the facility, a hotspot originally was detected by an employee moving the rubber materials at approximately 6:30 a.m. Willig said the employee smelled the odor of burning rubber and he told the employee to use his best judgement. The employee subsequently called the Galion Fire Department.
Small flames were present when the department arrived, but the fire quickly grew. Willig said rubber milling is a natural combustible material and more finely milled materials are increasingly more combustible.
GFD Chief Phil Jackson said firefighters do receive training on multiple types of material fires, including rubber, but knew assistance was needed.
“We knew how to go about this, but I know our limits as a department and we hit it, so I called Bucyrus and they came immediately to help,” Jackson said.
Jackson said his department had been to the facility multiple times before on fire runs.
Willig said the size of the pile caused concern and Innovative Recycling personnel have been working with the Environmental Protection Agency to mitigate the problem and remove the large pile from the location. He said it was the result of poor management no longer with the company.
He said the pile has been reduced by at least half during the past few months.
“At a minimum twice the size, maybe three times the size,” Willig said. “This was a large pile when I started working (at the Galion facility) last October as a part of the family to start managing this and got rid of the previous management for mismanagement.
“This was a large part of it.”
He said the company had six months from the EPA to remove the pile.
“We were making great headway on it,” he said. “This is exactly what we didn’t want to happen. This was a hazard and we were working on ridding it. I wish we were just a month ahead of where we were.”