Fire breaks out at Boston C&D facility

A large fire broke out at a Boston construction and demolition (C&D) recycling center on March 16 and was finally put out this past Monday, reports CBS Boston. 

The eight-alarm fire started around 8:30 a.m. Sunday inside the ReSource Roxbury facility on Girard Street. Fire department officials were concerned that it “could burn for days.” The cause of the fire is still being investigated. 

No one was inside at the time of the fire, according to Boston Fire Commissioner Paul Burke. Roughly 150 firefighters were called in to tackle the blaze, with three later transported to the hospital for undisclosed issues.

“It is a bad fire because of the debris in there. Construction material is very combustible so it's burning pretty good,” Burke told reporters. "We don't know what's in that material. There could be lithium batteries in it. There could be anything."

A drone with a thermal camera was used to get temperature readings off the roof and to locate where the fire was burning inside. Burke told CBS Boston that the device couldn’t enter the building during the fire because it would melt.

Firefighters cut holes in the metal walls to get hoses inside. The fire did not spread to the building next door.   
Sue Sullivan, executive director of the Newmarket Business Improvement District, said ReSource Roxbury has been in the neighborhood for about 10 to 15 years and called the company a “great community partner.”

"This looks like a major setback," she told reporters. “There aren't a lot of places that do the streaming of recycling demolition waste. If it's down at all, it's going to be a problem.”
The fire department said damage is estimated at $4 million.