MARBLEHEAD — Firefighters responded to a raging fire at the town’s garbage transfer station Monday afternoon.
At the scene, officials said the fire broke out sometime between 3:30 p.m. and 4:00 p.m. and was contained just before 6:30 p.m. The two giant mounds of waste at the transfer station continued to smolder after the fire was contained, forcing firefighters to keep water on the blaze, which was still producing thick, fog-like smoke.
A lone tractor could be seen driving through the dense smoke, digging through the heaps of debris so that firefighters could attempt to extinguish the remaining small flames that had been hiding underneath.
According to one witness at the scene, firefighters were concerned that the fire would spread to a nearby apartment complex, as it started to burn through some brush before being contained.
A nearby building was so close to the fire that the windows on the top floor began to crack and seemed to have been seconds away from bursting completely.
The transfer station, which is located at 5 Woodfin Terrace, temporarily holds the town’s trash and recycling until it is moved to other licensed facilities for disposal and reprocessing. The station also has a yard waste area where residents can come to pick up compost, which is known to be extremely flammable.
There were no reports of any injuries and officials are not certain what caused the fire at this time.
Ryan Vermette can be reached at [email protected].
Video footage provided by Karen Caulfield, who works in a neighboring building, shows roaring flames coming from brush at the transfer station.
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