PEABODY — A fire that started in a 60-foot-high mulch pile yesterday at a wood recycling facility quickly spread to 12 acres of nearby brush — as well as a fleet of heavy construction equipment.
The conflagration burned into the night and will go on for days, according to Peabody fire Chief Steve Pasdon, who is overseeing the massive response involving numerous local fire departments and state agencies.
"We will be here for days. It's deep, deep mulch," Pasdon said. "Front-end loaders will be moving around mulch for the next two days."
Pasdon said they do not know the ignition point and an investigation will reveal that at a later point.
The four-alarm fire caused a $1 million in damage to two front-end loaders, a 3,200-gallon diesel tanker truck and a industrial-sized wood chipper, according to Peabody fire Deputy Chief James Coughlin, the incident commander who retired yesterday after 35 years with the department.
Strong winds carried embers from the massive pile of mulch into the surrounding brush at the Farm Avenue facility. For a while, one concern was the brush fire, which was heading east from the facility, would reach Route 128 and Interstate 95, though firefighters were able to prevent that.
One firefighter was taken to the hospital for smoke inhalation and high-blood pressure, the chief said.
"It could be worse. We have no serious injuries. We have no residents threatened (by the flames)," Pasdon said.
The property on fire is privately owned and another company works at the property, according to Pasdon.
The business collects brush and logs, which they turn into mulch and wood chips.
Pasdon did not know the business's name when interviewed at the fire scene yesterday, but neighbors identified the business as J.D. Raymond Transportation out of Maine.
A tour of the fire's epicenter yesterday was a dizzying scene of firefighters, hoses, and different equipment tackling two different blazes at the facility.
At the mulch pile, firefighters sprayed water at the fire as a backhoe spread out the mulch. Steps away from the mulch pile, firefighters tackled a separate fire in a wood pile, a blaze that showed no signs of letting up.
Firefighters covered that fire with foam. Pasdon said the 500 to 600 gallons of chemical foam sprayed on the fire will saturate the wood pile and wood chips and burrow down to the bottom.
Multiple water tankers were called to the scene after the fire department received their first report of the blaze at 3:30 p.m.
The fire quickly spread as did the fire alarms. After two hours, the fire became a "general alarm," which called in all 90 Peabody firefighters on Father's Day.
The trend of general alarms on holidays is nothing new in Peabody. In 2006, a general alarm was struck because of the Mother's Day floods.
Firefighters weren't the only ones whose Father's Day was made more memorable by the blaze.
The brush near the Farm Avenue facility abuts the Interstate 95 south on-ramp to Route 128 north. That on-ramp was shut down by state police, backing up traffic as rubberneckers stopped to take a look at the billowing smoke overhead.
There were also onlookers who stopped to take a gander from the view on the Forest Street bridge over I-95.
"I came up here to take a few pictures and see what's going on," said Mark Milleken, who lives a half-mile from the fire scene.
Daniel Titus was enjoying a Father's Day cookout with his son and grandchildren when he heard explosions, possibly from the diesel fuel in the front-end loaders.
"We ended up getting in the car and heading over here," Titus said.
Philip Trapani of Georgetown was playing a round of golf at Salem County Club when he heard the explosions and the thick white smoke covering the area.
"We were a little worried for a while, but we figured with all the fire engines they'd have it under control," Trapani said. "I'd like to blame the smoke on a poor golf game."
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