A massive blaze at an auto recycling yard in Mississauga has been extinguished after burning for nearly 20 hours straight.
The three-alarm fire broke out at around 7 p.m. on Thursday at the Eagle Tech Recycling facility on Mavis Road near Central Parkway.
By 10 p.m. crews had the blaze contained but it proved to be a stubborn fire and continued to burn overnight.
Aerial apparatuses were used to pour water on the yard and by 9 a.m. officials said that “smoke had dissipated” to the point that they no longer had to be used.
“We have the fire contained. We haven’t declared it under control yet but it is contained,” Mississauga Fire Chief Tim Beckett told reporters at the scene. “It is a difficult fire to fight because of the number of automobiles and tires in there.”
Air quality deemed safe
At the height of the fire, 11 trucks, two command officers and two support vehicles were on scene assisting.
While there were initially concerns about air quality in the area, Beckett said that the Ministry of Environment has determined that it is safe.
He said that firefighters have faced challenges in accessing the fire due to the presence of hundreds of vehicles that are stacked on top of one another in the yard, not to mention thousands of tires. .
“Crews will be on scene for quite some time throughout the day making sure we have all the hot spots hit and take care of the little fires throughout. Then we will get some heavy equipment in and can start removing the cars once it is safe to do so,” he said. “It will be some time before we even physically start the investigation on site.”
The blaze was finally knocked out at approximately 3 p.m., fire officials said.
Beckett said that the fire is not being treated as suspicious at this point.
No injuries have been reported.
