Cumberland County recycling facility destroyed by fire

CTV Atlantic: Major fire at N.S. landfill A major fire destroyed the recycling facility at a Nova Scotia landfill Tuesday morning. CTV’s Dan MacIntosh reports.

More than 50 firefighters from 10 departments, including one from New Brunswick, spent much of Tuesday fighting a fire at a recycling facility in Nova Scotia’s Cumberland County.

Staff at the Cumberland Central Landfill noticed the fire around 6 a.m. The smoke was billowing when fire crews arrived.

“There were no visible flames until we got the doors opened up and it seemed to be fully involved on the inside,” says Cpt. Kendell Spence of the Springhill Fire Department.

The building is surrounded by flammable material and forest, but crews were able to keep the fire contained to the recycling facility, which handles all the recyclables for the area.

No one was injured but officials say the building was destroyed.

“Eighteen people are employed at the facility,” says site manager Stephen Rayworth. “Obviously this is ongoing, but we're certainly going to do everything we can to make sure that they remain employed.”

One of the concerns firefighters had to address was the burning plastics caused by the recycleables stored in the building.

“We repositioned our crews once so they're not into the smoke area,” says Cpt. Sepnce. “All of our closer team members are wearing self-contained breathing apparatus, so they're not breathing that stuff in.”

The landfill facility is operated by a joint committee of municipal units in Cumberland County. Replacement cost of the building is estimated in the hundreds of thousands of dollars.

“We're going to have to start over again with the cost of a new building,” says chairman Ernest Gilbert. “This one was paid for and it'll be up to the different councils to decide what we're going to do.”

The cause of the fire is under investigation.

Solid waste collection in the Amherst, N.S. area will proceed as normal.

With files from CTV Atlantic’s Dan MacIntosh.