Fire causes damage to Lakeshore Recycling Systems semitrailers and sorting center

The C&D sorting area will be closed for the foreseeable future.

A fire at Lakeshore Recycling Systems in Forest View, Illinois, caused damage to six semitrailers and a sorting center, a report by CBS Chicago says. The fire did not damage the company's new 40,000-square-foot Heartland recycling plant.

Sixty firefighters from 14 departments spent several hours over the night of May 2 to extinguish the flames, which were fanned by dry conditions and strong winds. The report says the fire started at around 10:30 p.m. in a construction and demolition (C&D) storage area and quickly spread. The report says the Chicago Fire Department sent a fire boat out to pump water from the Chicago Sanitary and Ship Canal to help extinguish the flames.

Forest View Fire Chief Larry Moran says in the report there was only one fire hydrant around the location and limited water supply caused the department to call for the boat. The fire was under control by 4 a.m.

The report says fire crews were on the scene most of the day May 3 to monitor hot spots and prevent the fire from sparking up. Moran says in the report this was the third fire at Lakeshore in the past three years and was the largest.  He says in the report the fire mostly consumed recyclables such as bales of cardboard and paper.

No injuries were reported, and Lakeshore CEO Alan Handley says in the report there was no lasting environmental danger because the facility does not process hazardous materials or tires.

The C&D storage area housed materials like scrap wood, dirt, bricks and glass. The report says it will be closed for the foreseeable future.

Lakeshore has posted a statement to its website that reads:

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“As reported, we experienced a fire in the late evening on Tuesday, May 1 at our Heartland facility located in Forest View. We are relieved to report that nobody was injured as a result of this incident, and public safety was never at risk due to the site being remote and in an industrial area.  The initial reports show the fire started in a construction and demolition recycling storage area and from there quickly spread due to the high winds of the evening. We want to thank the village of Forest View for their help as well as the Chicago Fire Department and additional on-site responders. The fire has been fully contained and we will continue to work with the corresponding fire departments to extinguish the remains of the fire. Safety is continually a core value at Lakeshore Recycling Systems and we will begin an investigation immediately to determine the cause as well as when to proceed with cleanup of this facility.”

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