Thick black smoke billowing from a recycling facility in Bridesburg was hard to miss against the backdrop of a clear sky during Wednesday's afternoon rush hour.
"You could see the smoke for miles," said bus driver Maurice Purnell.
"A lot of fire trucks. . .They must've had a dozen trucks go down there," said Frank Kruzinski, president of the neighborhood's town watch.
The fire at Kuusakoski Recycling, on the 31-hundred block of Orthodox Street, sent recycled toasters, vaccumes and heaters, up in flames.
"We’re handling low-grade home electronics. We’re taking the plastics off and recycling it and making them into new products again," explained company owner, Rich Burgess.
The fire was more a spectacle than a safety concern, as firefighters kept it contained to the rear of the recycling facility. They did have some problems with water pressure.
"We didn’t know when we got here, but the Water Department informed us there was a watermain break out on Orthodox St. When we got here, the water pressure wasn’t the best it was, we just had to work around it a little bit," said Fire Deputy Chief, Joe Mack.
Kruzinski had his ear on his scanners and kept the neighborhood informed. With no property damage and no one hurt, neighbors say the worst to come out of this fire was the assault on the senses.
"The smell of it. The smell left afterwards. If you got your windows open, your fan on, it’s throughout the whole house. So that’s about the worst of it."
It took firefighters nearly an hour-and-a-half to bring the fire under control. The owner of the business says the next step is finding out what sparked this massive three-alarm fire.
"This is a setback for sure. We’re going to do the right things to make sure we get it straightened out and obviously we’ll do things to make sure this never happens again," said Burgess.
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