Massive Fire at Cayce Recycling Plant

COLUMBIA, S.C. (WOLO) — “We have to basically drowned this fire,” says Lt. Jeff Simmons of the Cayce Department of Public Safety. For hourse Friday morning, firefighters from Cayce, West Columbia, Columbia and Lexington battled a blaze at the Worldwide Recycling plant in Cayce. Officials say the blaze started just before 9:00 o’clock Friday morning. . “The fire originated around some pallets outside of one of the rear doors to the building,” says Lt. Simmons. At the time, officials say six to seven employees were inside the building some of whom tried to put out the fire, but it was too last the fire spread inside and took off. “There’s a lot of fuel load in there, it’s plastic which is petroleum based and it’s really hard to put out, it produces really intense heat and burns for a long time,” says Lt. Simmons. We are told the building was full of plastics from things like water bottles to plastics used to build outdoor decks. There’s no doubt, firefighters were up against a mammoth of a fire. By Friday afternoon the building’s roof had collapsed and firefighters were forced to fight it from outside. “It’s just a matter of just getting enough water on it to put it out so, that’s kind of what everybody is concentrating on, just getting enough water on it,” says Chief Aubrey Jenkins, Columbia Fire Department. The blaze sent two firefighters to the hospital for heat exhaustion. The Department of Health and Environmental Control was also called into monitor the air quality for responders and those living in the area. “At this point we do not have any reason to believe that there is a threat to public heath,” says Adam Myrick, DHEC Spokesperson. Crandall Sims reporting, “And officials tell me just down the road there is a permanent air monitoring station they are checking that periodically, also they are using these mobile devices. This device in my hand actually has a built in GPS so they know where it is at all times. Officials say so far, neither the permanent monitoring stations nor these mobile devices have picked up anything unusual.”