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The first indication that something had gone wrong in Orrington on Tuesday night was reports of smoke near the Eagle Point Energy Center.
By the time the Orrington Fire Department got to the trash plant around 9:15 p.m., there was “heavy smoke and fire” at the facility, Chief Scott Stewart said.
A fire alarm system was never activated at the 40-year-old trash plant because it does not have one, Stewart said.
At the fire’s peak Tuesday night, flames engulfed multiple buildings while burning pieces could be seen falling to the ground. In the area surrounding the facility, thick black smoke hung in the air and what appeared to be ash fell from the sky.
Smoke could be seen from at least 2 miles away, and was still visible from the I-395 bridge over the Penobscot River 12 hours after the fire first started.
It took at least 15 hours and about 15 fire departments to get the fire under control, Stewart said. No one was injured in the fire.
It’s unclear what the extent of the damage is and what it will mean for the plans to reopen the plant, of which the town of Orrington is a 25% owner. Accounts from the fire departments that responded to the scene are among the first details to emerge about what happened inside the facility as the blaze burned. Orrington officials have provided few details and the facility’s majority owner, Evan Coleman, has not responded to multiple requests for comment.
Brewer was one of the next departments to arrive on scene, having received its call at 9:22 p.m. Its crew too was met with “heavy fire conditions.”
Over the course of the fire, more departments would arrive at EPEC to assist with extinguishing the blaze, including from Bangor, Newport, Veazie, Stetson, Carmel, Hampden, Hermon, Levant, Plymouth and Dedham.
While there was no fire alarm system at EPEC, the plant’s fire suppression system was activated and worked to “assist with extinguishing the fire,” Stewart said.
The fire likely started in what is called the reclaim area, Stewart said. It is a 20,000 square foot area where trash is stored after it’s sorted, according to the plant’s operating manual.
Conveyor belt systems were also on fire, Stewart said.
The Newport Fire Department was assigned to manage the five floors of conveyor belts by putting out any existing fires and preventing new ones from catching, Assistance Chief Travis Turner said.
By the time it was safe enough to go inside, the majority of the trash had burned off the conveyor belts, Turner said. The rubber belts themselves were slower to burn, he said.
The Newport crew and two other departments worked together to manage any hot spots that arose, Turner said. The fourth and fifth floors had pretty heavy heat and smoke, he said.
“Fires in these big industrial plants take a lot of resources to manage.” Turner said.
The Orrington Fire Department learned during the last fire at EPEC — which lasted 10 days in October 2024 — that the sheer amount of water needed to put out the flames was more than the hydrants at the plant would be able to handle, Stewart said.
Tankers from other departments shuttled water from hydrants, including one that was nearly 3 miles down the road.
Using that tanker system allowed fire fighters to “throw everything at it [the fire] at once and use a lot of water immediately to knock the fire down,” Stewart said.
One of the biggest differences in the fire fighters’ ability to more quickly put out this blaze was that there was significantly less trash inside the facility than there was in October 2024, Stewart said.
About 16,000 tons of trash and ash were taken from EPEC to Juniper Ridge Landfill after the October fire. It cost $1.5 million to remove, according to disposal tickets.
“Compared to the last time the sheer mass was far different,” Stewart said. “That’s why we were able to not be there for 10 days.”
It’s too soon after the fire for Stewart to have an estimate of how many gallons of water were used, he said.
The fire was knocked down around 3 a.m., Wednesday, and most of the mutual aid departments were released around 6 a.m., Stewart said. The fire was under control around noon Wednesday, he said.
The Orrington Fire Department contacted the state fire marshal’s office to investigate the cause of Tuesday night’s fire, but Stewart said he does not expect there to be a definitive answer. The fire marshal’s office confirmed it is investigating the blaze.
It’s still unknown what caused the October 2024 fire. A day after it erupted, while the facility was still burning, EPEC released a statement that blamed a lithium-ion battery. The plant’s former manager, who worked there when it was known as Penobscot Energy Recovery Co., disputed that claim, as did Stewart.
“I would not believe that to be the case,” Stewart told the Bangor Daily News at the time. “I can’t rule it out. Obviously we’ll never know what truly caused it.”