Fire crews from over 20 different agencies responded to a fire at Connecticut Scrap in Montville Wednesday.
According to Montville Fire Marshal Paul Barnes, the fire was mostly extinguished by about 4 p.m.
By the time Keyla Aliasson arrived at work in the morning, however, flames from the scrap metal heap were already painting the sky.
“I usually take that exit 6 right off the highway and I thought we were having a storm of some sort because it was so dark,” Keyla Aliasson said. “As soon as I turned, you could see the flames and they were just wicked high, and just the billow of smoke.”
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Officials say Montville crews received 911 calls around 6:15 a.m., and within 15 minutes crews were on scene.
“A lot of operations going on, we got tankers from 20 area towns as far away as Ashaway, RI,” Barnes said.
This is the second fire at Connecticut Scrap within the last two years, but Barnes said this one was even more involved.
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“Two years ago, we did over a million gallons. This year, we’ve already hit that,” Barnes said around 1 p.m.
DroneRanger’s exclusive aerial shots showed the extent of fire, as crews dumped over a million gallons of water onto the pile of smoldering metal.
“It’s not simple by any means because the fire is deep seeded in the pile,” Barnes said. “We’ve had to use DW employees to use their equipment to break the pile apart so we can get to the seed of the fire.”
With limited fire hydrants in the area, trucks imported water from nearby draft sites, emptying them into makeshift bins to be pumped onto the scene.
“The tanker trucks come up, they drop their water, proceed down Pequot Road, and we have three separate fill sites that they’re filling from,” Barnes said.
Coreen Connolly lives downwind of the fire. She, like many others, has concerns about what’s being thrown into the air.
“The smell makes me a little nervous,” she said. “I’ll be glad when it goes. Just what was in that pile that could get into your house or get into you.”
The Department of Energy and Environmental Protection has been testing the air for contaminants throughout the day, and detected no additional toxins within the smoke.
“None of the testing that we’ve done has shown anything at all as far as contaminants that are in the breathing zone for any of the people,” said Richard Scalora, DEEP emergency response supervisor for the Northern Region.
By "breathing zone," Scalora referred to those living in the nearby area. He recommended locals shut their windows and try staying inside to avoid inhaling the smoke.
Crews continue to address some of the smoldering hot spots within the pile of metal.
