JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — The Jacksonville Fire and Rescue Department is currently on scene Tuesday of a fire continuing at Atlantic Can recycling center on Jacksonville's Northside.
JFRD Captain Eric Prosswimmer told First Coast News the fire started late Monday night around midnight. He said tires are making it difficult to put out the fire, as the fire department has been getting water from neighboring apartments to extinguish three to four acres of debris burning.
"Rubber burns very hot," Prosswimmer said. "So, what we're dealing with is you know, you hit it with water, we can dampen it down. But, if you stop that flow of water, then it's gonna flare right back up. We've really dampened it down quite a bit."
Prosswimmer further explained that firefighters cannot easily surround the fire due to "access blockage [and] road blockage." He said around 6:50 a.m. that JFRD is reevaluating the situation to determine how long it will take to completely put out the fire, but added that the fire department is "optimistic that we're gonna be able to get it out today."
No one has been injured in the fire, no structures have been impacted, nor are any structures in danger, according to Prosswimmer.
In an update at noon, JFRD Chief Keith Powers said rubber is what is burning, and that it's burning off from tires in a pile that's believed to be 200 by 300 feet wide. He said the owner of the recycling center told them the pile was about 30 feet high at first.
As for air quality in the area, Powers said wind is blowing smoke to the north of the recycling center, so "air quality monitoring crews" are stationed north of Interstate 295 to ensure safety.
"We have not found anything up there that's of any concern to us," Powers told First Coast News. "Currently, we've got about 30 units that are on scene, about 75 personnel, and that's gonna continue for a while. Hopefully, in a matter of three, four or five hours we're able to make a dent in some of this. But, this could go on for multiple hours beyond where we're at right now."
Powers noted that the fire department has not been able to discover how the fire started at this point and said multiple partners are helping JFRD put it out, including the city's public works department and JEA.
