Facility spared from significant damage in long-burning salvage yard fire
DOVER – It took firefighters from nine departments more than 16 hours to get a salvage yard fire under control Friday night into Saturday morning.
Even then, about 24 hours later the Bolivar Fire Department was called back to quickly put out a rekindling.
On its Facebook page, Speedie Auto Salvage said only its sheet metal pile was burned. All equipment was spared, but the business will be closed this week for cleaning.
While firefighters did not speculate on the cause, Speedie’s Facebook post said fires like this are a possibility in a metal recycling facility. Something as small as a battery or grill ignitor can cause a fire unexpectedly.
According to a statement from Bolivar Fire Chief Shawn Lynch through a department spokesperson, investigators over the weekend were still trying to determine what caused the blaze at Speedie Auto Salvage in the 6900 block of Eberhart Road Northwest between Dover and Bolivar. Crews started the fire fight around 6:45 p.m. Friday, and the final first responders left at 11:30 a.m. Saturday.
Through a department spokesperson, Lynch said there were no structures involved, and nobody was hurt. They explained why the fire burned so long.
“It was a lot of heavy metals, a lot of car parts and things like that. It was all stacked on top of each other. It kept reheating as soon as we’d cool it down because it was everything deep inside that was burning.”