Thick smoke blanketed Bridgeport Avenue and the smell of garbage burning was noticeable from Pine Rock Park to the White Hills after a stubborn fire inside a recycling-sorting facility on Oliver Terrace Tuesday evening.
Firefighters were still dousing hot spots in the structure as of 8:50 p.m.
As of 6:30 p.m., a preliminary report from the Shelton Fire Department said three firefighters were hurt battling the fire at the Winters Bros. facility at 46 Oliver Terrace.
Two firefighters were being evaluated for possible heat exhaustion while a third suffered a minor elbow injury.
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Firefighters were sent to the area about 5:15 p.m. after receiving a report of a possible brush fire, Shelton Fire Department Assistant Chief Tim Hongo said.
However, firefighters arriving at the scene saw the inside of the large, warehouse-like structure was on fire, Hongo said.
Firefighters called for more equipment and a ladder truck from Derby was called to the scene as well.
“Right now, it’s mostly garbage (inside) burning,” Hongo said at about 6:30 p.m. “We don’t know how it started.”
The building, with two over-sized bays in the front, essentially acted like a massive oven, with the burning material — thought to be construction/demo garbage — stuffed together giving off immense heat.
“It’s just way too hot for us to even put anybody inside the building,” he said.
It was unclear how many Winters Bros. employees were working at the facility when the fire started. One employee said he had no idea what happened.
Luckily, no hazardous materials were in the building, which is made of thin corrugated steel.
It could burn “a long time,” Hongo said. “There’s a lot of garbage in there.”
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The first firefighters on the scene were greeted by thick black smoke billowing from the structure.
“We had fire starting to breach through the side walls,” Hongo said. “We had fire through the whole front of the building.”
A volunteer firefighter who is also a certified machine operator drove construction equipment to the rear of the building to “pop” holes into the building to vent the heat and gain access for hoses.
Ladder trucks were especially important to extinguish the flames, since the intense heat could warp the roof.
“With this type of structure, the roof tends to buckle, so we don’t want to put anyone on the roof to open it up,” Hongo said.
The fire marshal’s office will be investigating.
