An executive for a Shelton recycling business hit by a fire Tuesday said the company will re-open the building damaged by the blaze as soon as it can.
Winters Bros. Vice President for Transfer and Recycling Bill Brennan said Wednesday that the company was working on plans to renovate the building on Oliver Terrace hit by Tuesday’s fire.
The blaze will force that work to start sooner, he said.
“We will make lemonade out of the lemons that were dealt to us,” Brennan said.
He said the renovations might have to be more extensive due to the fire, but they definitely must begin as soon as the building is checked by a structural engineer.
Brennan said the fire broke out around 5 p.m., after normal operations at the building had ceased for the day.
Heavy smoke was noticed by managers who were still working at the company offices next door at 46 Oliver Terrace.
The heavy smoke and acrid smell from the blaze poured across Bridgeport Avenue during the afternoon rush hour, and residents could smell the peculiar odor as far away as Pine Rock Park and White Hills.
Article continues after the photo gallery:
Cause ‘Undetermined’
But Fire Department officials reported that no hazardous substances were incinerated in the fire.
Shelton Fire Marshal James Tortora said that during the fire, two firefighters were treated for heat exhaustion, one for minor smoke inhalation and one for a minor elbow injury.
Tortora said no definite cause for the fire has been identified, so he officially declared it “undetermined.”
“It could have been anything, something mixed in,” he said.
Brennan thinks spontaneous combustion is to blame, and said the recent spate of dry weather was probably a contributing factor.
Rain arrived early this morning in Shelton and continued throughout the day, with occasional heavy downpours this afternoon, ending a rainless period of weather that had stretched for more than two weeks.
“It’s been extremely dry,” he said.
Brennan said the building hit by the fire was a processing facility for separating construction and demolition waste.
That debris typically contains scrap wood, cardboard and other flammable materials that are used in building construction, he said.
Firefighters Praised
He praised firefighters from Shelton and other nearby communities who responded to the scene within eight minutes of reporting the fire and remained on the scene until 1 a.m. combing through the charred recycling debris with infrared cameras looking for hot spots that might flare up again.
“I can’t say enough about the first responders,” Brennan said. “They got help from Derby and Ansonia as well.”
While he talked to a reporter, a structural engineer, John C. Becker of Becker Engineering in Lynbrook, N.Y., arrived to check over the building to make sure it was still safe.
Outside, workmen shoveled burnt recycling debris into containers to be trucked away for disposal.
On Earth Day, April 22, the company held a grand opening for its recently upgraded “single-stream” processing facility at the end of Oliver Terrace, which processes and recycles numerous types of materials from commercial clients.
Among the dignitaries at the grand opening were Gov. Dannel Malloy and Danbury and Shelton Mayors Mark Boughton and Mark Lauretti.
Brennan said the new, expanded recyclable materials processing facility services 26 communities from southwestern Connecticut, especially Danbury, which provides about half of its volume.
“We’re truly a regional facility,” he said.
