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November 14, 2019 01:28 PM

Fire causes extensive damage at Pennsylvania recycler

Jim Johnson
Staff Writer
Plastics News Staff
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    Palmer Municipal Fire Department
    Gallagher

    A fire at a plastics recycling facility in Eastern Pennsylvania took six hours to extinguish after flames spread to the roof.

    There were no injuries as a result of the blaze at Palmer Plastics Inc. in Palmer Township, near Allentown.

    "We were dispatched to a report of smoke coming from the business. On our arrival, we found out the plastics extruder ended up catching fire, and the fire spread up through the exhaust system of the extruder into the roof assembly," Fire Commissioner Steve Gallagher said.

    Firefighters received the call just before 5 p.m. Oct. 13 and were on the scene for about six hours.

    "The fire damage was to the extruder and roof assembly. There was a lot of water damage to the products," he said. "The only plastics that were on fire were in the extruder at the time."

    Difficulty with extinguishing the fire in the roof caused the township to call in assistance from surrounding communities.

    "It went to a third alarm, which brought in about 50 other firefighters. Mutual aid companies from surrounding Palmer Township responded, [for] a total of seven departments," Gallagher said.

    "The challenges were the freezing temperatures that resulted in icy conditions on the roof and our equipment as well as chasing the fire through the roofing materials," he said.

    The fire department was waiting on a damage estimate from an insurance adjuster as of Oct. 14.

    Palmer Plastics ranked 87th on the latest Plastics News list of plastics recyclers in North America, with a volume of 24 million tons in 2018.

    The company handles a variety of post-industrial plastics including PET, high and low density polyethylene, polypropylene, polystyrene and ABS.

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