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Firefighters Expect Scrap Pile To Still Be Burning Today

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By VALERIE KALFRIN The Tampa Tribune

Published: December 1, 2007

Updated: 12/01/2007 08:04 am

TAMPA - A blaze that firefighters said resembled an erupting volcano burned for hours at a Port of Tampa recycling business Friday, spewing a plume of smoke across Tampa Bay and slightly affecting air quality, officials said.

No one was injured in the fire that broke out in a pile of scrap shortly before 6:30 a.m. at Trademark Metals Recycling, 4201 Maritime Blvd.

Tampa Fire Rescue officials expected the fire to burn through the night into this morning. They were unable to determine the cause of the fire while it burned or estimate damages.

Thick smoke may still be observed today, he said, and light winds may carry the smoke to other neighborhoods, said Alain Watson, spokesman for the county's Environmental Protection Commission.

The fire began inside a scrap pile roughly 150 feet square and 50 feet tall, Tampa Fire Rescue Capt. Bill Wade said. The material was waiting to be separated and shredded.

Although predominantly metal, the pile also contains material such as plastic, vinyl and grease, Wade said. "It's just a nice, wide potpourri of scrap material," he said.

Firefighters used a combination of water, foam and a crane to separate the nonburning material from burning scraps. One fire official described the smoking pile as "a volcano of scrap metal rising up from the ground," Wade said.

The fire sent a plume of smoke several hundred feet into the air, Wade said.

Because of the morning fog, the sun could not dissipate the plume, which winds carried across Tampa Bay and into southern Hillsborough County, said Jerry Campbell, director of the air-management division for the county EPC.

An EPC monitor found elevated levels of pollution in Apollo Beach, but "the levels there are not what we would call unhealthy," Campbell said. Even so, he said residents who are elderly, young or who have respiratory ailments might be bothered by the air quality.

Others might notice "a distinct odor in the air - burning rubber, burning plastic," Campbell said.

Air quality levels returned to normal by Friday afternoon, Watson said.

Steve Huard of the Hillsborough County Health Department advised anyone with a compromised immune system to stay indoors and use air conditioning as a precaution.

Reporters John Ceballos and Mike Salinero contributed to this report. Reporter Valerie Kalfrin can be reached at (813) 259-7800 or vkalfrin@tampatrib.com.

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