A four alarm fire raged at a recycling plant on Rochester, NY’s northeast side, Wednesday, June 27, shutting down several side streets and filling the neighborhood with thick smoke.
Crews tried to put out flames at J.C. Fibers on Hollenbeck Street. The company recycles 200,000 tons of paper and cardboard each year.
"We got a lot of plastics, a lot of cardboard, a lot of paper, a lot of pallets," Rochester Fire Chief Floyd Madison said of the building’s contents.
With that type of material in and around the building, it didn’t take long for the fire to spread.
"We have four or five tractor trailers that actually burned up in the rear of the building because there's a lot of debris that are in bales in the rear of the building where they bale it then load it on the tractor trailers to be hauled away," Madison added.
The 300 block of Hollenbeck Street was evacuated, including some businesses in that area. Some employees working across the street from the blaze at Rochester Midland Corp. noticed the fire around 2:15 and said the building went up in a matter of minutes.
"I had just come back from lunch and we noticed there was smoke coming from the building," Pamela Wing said. "And probably within, I'd say, less than ten minutes the fire department was there and our supervisor had come over and told us to get out of the building."
Three buildings were involved and firefighters expected to be on the scene throughout the night.
"We'll still be here tomorrow," Madison said. "Maybe not in this strength, total firefighting force, but we will have a number of crews still here through the night until we get a total handle and can say this thing is out."
Chief Madison said there were no injuries.
Firefighters were rotated in and out because of the extreme heat as temperatures reached the low 90s.
The Carter Street Rec Center hosted some of the evacuees from the impacted neighborhood. R News