Tire Fire Reveals Substandard City Services

Firefighters finish job in Lockport tire blaze

By Thomas J. Prohaska

News Niagara Reporter

LOCKPORT — Firefighters disconnected the last yellow hose that snaked from a hydrant and into a Lockport recycling plant at about 11 a. m. Saturday, where a tire fire had burned since Friday afternoon.
The blaze at Liberty Tire Recycling, 490 Ohio St., started at about 2:15 p. m. Friday. It sent a mass of black smoke drifting east across the city that could be seen at least 10 miles away. After nightfall Friday, smoke could still be seen in the headlights of traffic on South Transit Street, Route 78, near the center of the city, and the smell was pervasive downwind of the fire in the city’s west end.
Liberty Tire is in an industrial zone that is also near homes, including a residential neighborhood on Stevens Street. There were no evacuations, but residents were advised to stay inside and not open their windows.
Ohio Street and other nearby roads remained closed Saturday, but authorities were not vigilant, and residents and workers easily navigated around the orange blockades.
Mayor Michael W. Tucker said the fire was the result of a broken electrical line that fell on a pile of tires.
“I think the fire or heat raced through that wire and overheated it. That caused the transmission line to break and fall on the tires. It was bad luck, but at the same time, those tires shouldn’t have been there,” Tucker said.
The mayor said he thought the city may have a building code violation case to pursue against the company.
“It’s another example of why we need the [U. S.] Environmental Protection Agency and [New York State] Department of Environmental Conservation doing inspections on a regular basis at even some of the smaller facilities,” said Erin Heaney, executive director of the Clean Air Coalition of Western New York. “I think this also shows the continued need for the DEC to be able to do air monitoring when there are accidents at facilities that could threaten public health.”
Derek Martin, who said he was the property owner but not the plant’s operator, declined to speak to The Buffalo News or allow access to fire officials at the scene.
Martin invited residents or workers from the neighborhood to contact him directly about health or safety concerns from the fire or any violations that may have occurred on his property.
A spokesman for the corporate office of Liberty Tire Recycling, in Pittsburgh, also declined to comment.
News Staff Reporters Tim Graham and Mark Sommer contributed to this report.


Sooty silver lining after tire fire

By Jim Krencik
Lockport Union-Sun & Journal

Firefighters were able to extinguish a large pile of burning rubber tires on Lockport’s west end after an all-night battle Saturday morning, but the cleanup has just begun at the site and at local homes sullied by soot.
The fire, contained to an open area at Liberty Tire Recycling, 490 Ohio St., spewed heat and thick black smoke over the city for hours before firefighters, with the help of Liberty’s heavy equipment, picked apart and extinguished the burning material piece-by-piece. Fire department personnel were still on the scene Saturday evening to prevent a re-ignition at the facility.
“Rubber requires copious amounts of water ... it just won’t go out,” Lockport Fire Department Capt. Patrick Brady said. “It’s been a long, laborious process.”
According to LFD Assistant Chief Joe Morello, the tire fire began between 2 and 2:30 p.m. Friday when a live industrial power line fell on the pile of rubber after partially melting following a short circuit.
An initial fire in a building at the facility was put out swiftly using carbon dioxide extinguishers. Tackling the tire fire was much harder. Morello said LFD and responders from the South Lockport Fire Co. and Rapids Fire Co. were slowed by a water supply problem that required running as much as 2,000 feet of hose from nearby hydrants to the fire.
“We wouldn’t have been able to make the connections without the volunteer fire companies’ hoses,” Morello said.
Members of the platoon that was on duty Friday afternoon and around 25 more firefighters called in to the fire cycled between the site and the fire station throughout the evening and morning. The fire was officially declared over around noon.
Morello said no department equipment was heavily damaged in the fire response, aside from being coated with greasy soot. Engine No. 7, the department’s newest truck, did have to be towed away from the site Saturday, but that was due to an engine issue.
The fire did not spread from the pile of tires, but the plume of smoke over the city left soot across the area. In the northeast end of the city, retired street supervisor Dennis Brockman found that a cement deck in the backyard of his home was covered in oily soot after his white dogs came back into the house blackened after they were let out Saturday morning.
Mayor Mike Tucker said Saturday that with air quality tests taken during the fire revealing no dangers to residents, his concern has turned to the cleanup.
“The concern now is that people are waking up to find their houses and cars are covered in soot,” said Tucker, who has been recommending that residents hose down the sooty structures. “I think the company is liable.”
Tucker said the city intends to meet with representatives from Liberty this week to discuss their business, the fire and the need for the company to be in better compliance with city regulations. He added the company has always promptly responded to city concerns in the past.
“We’re going to investigate,” Tucker said. “We’re concerned by the fact that it’s the second fire since September ... it’s what the residents expect of us and it’s what we’ll do.”
The Sept. 7 fire gutted a building at the site, causing an estimated $2 million to $3 million in damage. The Lockport Police Department has not yet issued a report on this weekend’s fire, but heavy damaged was visible at the site.

— additional reporting by Stephen M. Wallace.

A couple things stood out in the reports published in the above articles. First off, in the Buffalo News article, the Mayor explains how the fire began- apparently he is now a qualified fire investigator. Also, in the same article, the Mayor indicates that the tires that caught fire were in the wrong location and that the City may be pursuing some building code violations. Hey, maybe it's just me but if there was a fire in September of  2011 shouldn't the City pay a little more attention to see that there is no recurrence of  a similar incident, but they didn't and so now according to the US&J “We’re going to investigate,” Tucker said. “We’re concerned by the fact that it’s the second fire since September ... it’s what the residents expect of us and it’s what we’ll do.” No, actually Mike, we expect you to be proactive and not reactive, duh!
What you don't read about in the newspaper accounts and what really needs to be talked about, is the fact that there was over an hour delay before area volunteers were called to assist. I wonder why? According to reports from several sources around the City, apparently the delay occurred because the City's Firefighter Union require that all union members be called to a scene before asking for mutual aid. Just remember that when there is a large scale emergency where several lives are at risk and one of them may be your own!
Don't get me started on the classless thanks given to the Vols for their fire hoses.

As a side note, can anyone explain the headline in the US&J? Where exactly is the "silver lining" in all this?