Heavy machinery was digging through scrapped vehicles and tires on Friday to reach the heart of a fire that flared up south of Nanaimo on Thursday and shot huge plumes of black smoke into the sky.
North Oyster Fire Chief Florian Schulz said Friday that the fire, at the Schnitzer Steel Industries yard off the Trans-Canada Highway near Cassidy, was “probably about 95 per cent out.”
“They are just doing a little bit of mop-up right now, just because it is such a big burn pile and there is so much heat stored in there.”
Schulz did not yet know what caused the fire, reported to the department at 8:45 a.m. Thursday, but does not believe it’s suspicious.
No one was injured and neighbouring properties were not damaged, Schulz said.
Schnitzer Steel Industries’ machinery was working Friday to pull the pile apart and turn items over so a pared-down crew of firefighters could douse it with water and cool it down. “They’ve been doing this all night for us,” said Schulz, adding the source of the fire is “right in the middle of one of their scrap piles.”
Huge billows of black smoke surrounded the area Thursday as more than 70 firefighters from several volunteer fire departments worked together to fight the blaze, said Schulz, who called the response from the departments “spectacular.”
B.C.’s Wildfire Service also responded to the firefighting effort, which was overseen by North Oyster.
“It kept on growing and spread in all directions and then it hit the tires. It’s just a massive fuel load,” Schulz said. “It’s a mountain of scrap metal mixed with everything else you have in cars, from tires, plastics, foam.”
Firefighters donned self-contained breathing apparatus to attack the blaze, which generated temperatures hot enough to melt steel, Schulz said.
In the next few days, the property owner plans to work on the site with support from the fire department. “It stays hot for a long time so you’ll constantly get a little bit of smoke and some steam,” the fire chief said.
In an area with no nearby hydrants, water was supplied by the Nanaimo Airport and the Town of Ladysmith, Schulz said. Trucks were filled with water and brought to the fire.
“It’s pretty standard procedure for us to shuttle water to the scene,” he said. “It was impressive, the amount of water they were able to bring back to the scene and get onto the fire.”
Some crew members worked 10 to 12 hours, said Schultz, who was at the scene until 4 a.m. Friday, returning a few hours later for a meeting with officials from the company, firefighting staff and provincial officials.
North Oyster Fire Department officials had visited the Schnitzer site last year, carrying out training on how to extinguish fires, Schulz said.
Red’s Bakery of Nanaimo took on the task of supporting crews by delivering everything from hot lasagna to submarine sandwiches and cold beverages to firefighters.
Bakery owner Stevie Sawatzky, known as Red, worked with her staff overnight to fill their three delivery trucks with food for the crews, employee Erika Hartt said Friday.
Sawatzky posted on social media on Friday: “We have been running lunch trucks out to the fire at Schnitzer since six last night. We are running on 36 hours now and not much left, so we will not have our trucks out on their routes.
“We apologize to all our dedicated businesses, but we had to make a choice and we chose our heroes to look after.”
Normally, the delivery trucks head out on a route to serve local customers such as construction sites and other businesses.
Sawatzky said the bakery would be closed Friday in order to prepare more food for firefighters and support personnel if needed.
Sawatzky went home to sleep when Hartt arrived at work on Friday, said Hartt. “She’s such a kind lady.”
On Thursday, residents of Cedar, Ladysmith and North Oyster were asked not to use local water because groundwater could be contaminated and water was being drawn from local reservoirs to fight the fire.
Water samples have been sent to Vancouver for testing, and it’s hoped results will be provided over the weekend.
Bottled water was brought in on Friday and more is available in case it’s needed on Monday, a School District 79 official said.
Island Health has not issued any notices regarding water in the area.
cjwilson@timescolonist.com
