Firefighters continue to douse a large pile of recyclable material at the CC Waste Services Facility in Pittsburg. The fire was contained by the building’s fire sprinkler system.
At approximately 1130 pm on Saturday, June 22nd, the Contra Costa County Fire Protection District was dispatched to a commercial fire alarm for a water flow from a fire sprinkler system at the Contra Costa Waste Service Recycling Center at 1300 Loveridge Road in Pittsburg. A column of smoke was seen by the responding engine company and a full first alarm assignment was requested. Upon their arrival, fire crews found a large (100′x75′x25′) pile of recyclable material was on fire inside the building. Two fire sprinkler heads had discharged keeping the fire from advancing. However, the fire was deeply seated inside of the pile and after deploying hose lines it was necessary to tear apart the pile and spread it out so that the fire could be fully extinguished. Plant personnel were called in to operate heavy equipment and tractors to pull the pile apart and move the material outside to assist in extinguishment.
Ten Fire District personnel from Pittsburg and Antioch were committed for over two hours to fully extinguish the fire. No injuries were reported and no damage to the building was evident.
The cause of the fire is undetermined, but most likely caused by some of the material in the pile through an organic decomposition process causing spontaneous combustion. That process can be accelerated by hot days which were experienced on Saturday.
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