On September 26, 2012, the US Environmental Protection Agency announced how it handled a fire that consumed a 50,000 ton pile of plastic, glass, and glass in the Hillcrest Industries facility. The EPA worked alongside the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation and firefighters in Wyoming County and the Village of Attica.
The EPA has been applying a fire suppression agent called F-500 to the pile of rubble over the last couple of days. The fire suppression agent is supposed to cover the debris and smother the fire by cutting off oxygen. However, the EPA noticed the suppression agent was not working properly, so they consulted with fire suppression experts.
The experts determined that the EPA needed to separate the pile into smaller segments and put out the fire in the smaller sections. The pile was originally 40 feet high and covered an entire acre. The EPA states that because the smaller segments will be extinguished with water and possibly foam, local residents may notice a large amount of smoke, steam, and even notice an odor.
The EPA is going to bring in heavy equipment to split up the pile. A system is also being built to collect water runoff, and the EPA will also bring in air conditioning equipment that will use water foggers to control the level of smoke and aid in putting out the fire. The EPA plans to begin breaking up the pile on Saturday, September 29, 2012.
Judith A. Enck, the EPA Regional Administrator, states, “The number one priority for the EPA is to put the fire out. By breaking the piles apart, we can expose the fire and extinguish it in smaller, more manageable sections…[and] I want to assure the community near the site that we are doing everything possible to put this fire out quickly and eliminate any smoke or pollution from being released into the air.”
Source: Environmental Protection Agency
