Marcel Tetrault
Comox Valley Echo

Tuesday, January 27, 2009

It took firefighters almost one-and-a-half days to completely extinguish a large fire that tore through a recycling depot in Cumberland over the weekend.

The main building at the Industrial Paper Industries (IPI) plant on the corner of Royston and Ulverston roads was fully involved when fire crews arrived shortly after the call came in at 10:40 a.m.

"It was a very big fire," said Cumberland fire chief Ken McClure. "It was a totally involved structure -- fire and smoke from all openings. Within minutes of us arriving on scene, the fire was already through the roof."

On-site employees had discovered the fire a little earlier and immediately tried to fight it with on-site extinguishers.

"But the fire grew so intense so quickly that, rightly so, they backed out of the scene and called the fire department," said McClure.

The 15,000 square foot building served as the recycling depot for the Comox Valley and was full of large, compressed bales of recyclables.

"If you use an analogy, these bales of recycled material are quite similar to a Presto log," said McClure. "These things would be stacked and pushed together. The entire warehouse was completely full of this material and we had a lot of newsprint and all the other recyclables."

While the main fire was knocked down in a couple of hours, heavy equipment had to be brought in to break apart the bundles of compressed recycled material, each of which had to then be hosed down and moved to a safe area.

The sheer volume of flammable material meant that volunteer firefighters had to work at the job for between 33 and 34 hours.

"We had crews there continuously until (Sunday) night at 10:30," said McClure. "It's quite taxing mentally as well as physically.

"My people are absolutely, in my opinion, the best. They work hard (and) they have a dedication that is second to none."

The work was made a little easier when a man pulled up with a big pot of soup around 11 p.m. on Saturday. Coffee, donuts and sandwiches continued to be brought by community members throughout the ordeal.

"People were constantly asking us, is there anything we can do to help you," said McClure. "It's just a wonderful feeling when your community pulls in behind your fire department."

The long firefight used up all of the extra reserves of foam fire retardant in the Valley and valuable help was received from the Courtenay Fire Department, which has a special ladder truck equipped with a hose that can spray from above.

"Being able to get the hose streams up above the actual fire was quite an advantage," said McClure. "That's because a building that is totally involved in fire, we can't put any ladders to the building and put firefighters up there."

The Cumberland Fire Department, the RCMP and the provincial fire commissioner's office continue to investigate the cause of the blaze.

"We have a couple of theories and we are going to be pursuing that," said McClure.

A planner's report on the most recent Cumberland council agenda, from Jan. 12, noted that IPI had been informed in April of last year that there was a requirement for "immediate compliance" with fire regulations. The report goes on to note that the company had hired a "fire engineer" to prepare short- and long-range fire plans.

"We were trying to get something established," said McClure. "Unfortunately the fire kind of superseded any safety plans."

McClure said it was not yet known whether any of the issues regarding adherence to fire regulations contributed to the start of the fire.

Firefighters were able to save the company's garbage trucks and office as well as a couple of accessory buildings.

Damage from the fire is not expected to disrupt recyclable collection, which is scheduled for Comox this week and Courtenay next week.

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© Comox Valley Echo 2009

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