TOPSHAM, Maine — Nearly 60 firefighters from 11 communities battled for 10 hours overnight Monday to quell a blaze at a recycling plant that engulfed a 1-acre pile of scrap metal that in some places reached 50 feet high.
One Topsham firefighter was treated and released from Mid Coast Hospital on Tuesday morning for dehydration, Topsham Fire Chief Brian Stockdale said.
Crews were called to Grimmel Industries, the site of the former Pejepscot paper mill on the Androscoggin River, shortly before 6 p.m. Upon arrival, firefighters found that the three fire hydrants in the scrapyard were broken, Stockdale said, further complicating the largest problem: water supply.
While one fire truck drafted water from the yard’s only access to the Androscoggin River, it fell upon tanker trucks from as far away as Sabattus to transport the rest of the 2 million gallons of water Stockdale estimated crews used throughout the night.
“At least half came by tanker,” he said. “Each tanker made around 20 round trips (to hydrants on River Road and Ivanhoe Road).”
Several times, crews simply ran out of water, despite multiple holding tanks.
Had the hydrants been working, Stockdale said, “we would have been able to get a lot more water on it a lot faster.”
Still, firefighters managed to keep the flames from the conveyor belts, Stockdale said. No buildings or fire equipment were damaged.
The chief praised two Grimmel employees who used heavy equipment to spread out sections of metal once it had been extinguished, allowing firefighters to fight fires farther into the scrap pile.
Investigators from the state fire marshal’s office were at Grimmel’s during the day Tuesday, after Topsham Deputy Chief Steve Emmons called them because of “the magnitude of the fire.”
Emmons said Tuesday afternoon that a cause is unlikely to be determined because of the nature and size of the fire.
The recycling plant was operating as usual by Tuesday afternoon, according to Emmons.
Grimmel Industries operates a number of scrap metal recycling plants.
The Topsham site has been plagued with fires. A 1995 fire that caused more than $1 million in damage was determined to be arson.
A July 2004 inferno drew firefighters from 17 departments to a three-alarm fire that destroyed several buildings. Investigators said the flames were so hot that the cause could not be determined, according to the Sun Journal.
And in September 2009, a four-alarm fire at the plant marked the fifth blaze at Grimmel’s Topsham facility in 14 years, The Forecaster reported.
Most recently, the cause of a two-alarm blaze in July 2013 remained undetermined.
Stockdale said town officials were just beginning to evaluate the financial impact of the incident. In the past, he said, the company has partially reimbursed the town for expenses.
Crews cleared just before 3 a.m., and Stockdale said the fire was completely extinguished. Grimmel employees were shredding the metal Tuesday morning.