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Recycling Center at the Hernando County landfill suffers major damage in fire
Jordan Bowen reports
HERNANDO COUNTY, Fla. - Fire crews worked for hours to put out a two-alarm fire at the Recycling Center at the Hernando County landfill off Suncoast Parkway early Saturday morning. No injuries were reported, but the building has been deemed a total loss.
Flames and smoke could be seen billowing from the building as firefighters worked to douse the flames.
"An employee reporting for work noticed a fire in the recycling center building and alerted 911 responders," Hernando County Fire Rescue Community Risk Reduction Manager Nick Brandt said.
Crews arrived just after 6 a.m. Saturday to find half the building engulfed in flames.
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"It took approximately two and a half hours to bring the fire under control. The majority of the fire was from the contents of the building, which is recycling products, mainly cardboard, plastics, aluminum, and other various metals," Brandt said.
Crews cleaning up damage from the fire
Brandt says the fire escalated to a two-alarm fire because there were no fire hydrants at the facility. Multiple water tenders, which are trucks with large water tanks, were called in to help from Hernando County and Citrus County. Crews had to make dozens of trips to the nearest fire hydrant, more than two miles away, to get the fire under control.
"Any incident of this magnitude in a locations like this, it takes a little bit of time to get the tenders that are needed to shuttle the amount of water that's needed. There's a little bit of a delay in getting operations sustained, which was a challenge we had to overcome in this incident. Once we got the water supply on-site, we had continuous water flowing, and we were able to get a good handle on the incident," Brandt said.
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Crews were still on the scene Saturday afternoon and will be for the remainder of the day to put out in any hot spots. At this time, no word on the cost of the damage. The state fire marshal's office is now investigating.
The official cause of the fire is still under investigation.
The Hernando County Utilities Department says they are still working on an alternative for where residents can drop off their recycling and will alert the public as soon as they know more. The facility will be closed at least till Monday.