Cease and desist order continues following tire plant fire

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While the visible fire was put out more than a month ago, much work still remains at the site of September’s tire plant fire off the Maricopa-Casa Grande Highway at the Arizona Rubber Recycling Center.

According to Maricopa Fire Department Division Chief/Investigator Mark Boys, the cease and desist operations order remains in effect for the plant.

“They still have a stop work order,” Boys told inmaricopa.com. “We gave them a list of demands they have to meet to start work again. They haven’t met the issues yet.”

Boys said highlighting those demands is that facility management must bring its water supply needs up to code, along with capping materials underground so that they won’t be a hazard. “They have been researching the idea of bringing in a fire pump,” Boys said.

Boys noted that a meeting was held with plant management and the Arizona Department of Environmental Quality this past Monday. “The environmental clean up hasn’t begun yet,” Boys said.

While management at the facility has been generally cooperative according to Boys, there is much work to be done in the coming weeks and months.

“They did make sure a temporary fence was in place for security, as that was a major concern we had,” Boys said. “They did comply quickly with that.”

While nothing is burning to the visible eye, Boys said the fire could go for months as far as smoldering and the ground being warm. “It is tough to tell the extent of ground contamination without testing,” Boys added.

Even though electricity has been cut off to the site for weeks, Boys said officials are in regular contact with management via phone and email. Officials are also driving past the facility from time to time to make sure only clean up efforts are being conducted.

City fire officials had been out to the recycling center location a few days prior to the fire in September to look at some follow up inspections.

One of the concerns at the time was that tires were stacked too high on the three acre site.

File photo