Firefighters from the Langdon and Balzac fire departments were able to quickly bring an industrial fire at Progressive Waste Solutions located at 285122 Bluegrass Drive in Rocky View County (RVC) under control on Nov. 15, according to RVC Fire Services District Chief Dax Huba.
“They’re basically a waste recycling and transfer site. When you get mixed garbage like that, material like oily rags or oil or linseed oil soaked wood, oil will start off gassing and can spontaneously combust,” Huba said. “The garbage in question spontaneously combusted.”
After receiving a call from an employee of the business at approximately 8 a.m., Huba said 18 firefighters as well as two fire engines, a bush buggy and tender responded.
“Once there was enough flame and heat the sprinklers went off in the building,” he said. “At that time – being the weekend – the Langdon Fire Station was fully staffed. We had to peel open the doors (of the building). They provided a loader operator and we started pulling the garbage out to extinguish it and make sure the fire was out.”
Huba said the fire was completely out and fire crews were able to leave at approximately 11 a.m. Damage to the building was minimal.
“There was really no damage other than a lot of smoke. We were able to keep the smoke out of the office and lunch room quarters,” he said.
Because crews were able to pull the garbage out of the building with the help of the employee with the front-end loader, Huba said there was little threat of the blaze starting up again.
“We gave it a pretty good soaking, and we had a bobcat and two loaders so we made sure it was out before we left,” he said.
The water tender was brought in from the Balzac Fire Station along with two firefighters.
Huba said although these kinds of fires do happen without warning at businesses that deal with waste and recycling, Progressive Waste Solutions has taken the necessary precautions to mitigate the impact.
“The business is set up with sprinklers and detection systems,” he said. “Obviously the amount of times that they get fires there will have to be watched over the next couple of years to see if there’s anything that needs to be done. When you’re dealing with mixed garbage, you never know.”
