Metal fire at port smokes out skyline

Tampa firefighters expected the blaze to burn into this morning.

By REBECCA CATALANELLO and CASEY CORA, Times Staff Writer
Published December 1, 2007

Smoke billows from a burning pile of scrap metal at the Port of Tampa. Tampa firefighters sprayed the fire with a foam product mixed with water, which would allow deeper penetration into the pile.
	[Chris Zuppa | Times]

TAMPA - Towers of smoke disrupted Tampa's skyline from morning until night Friday as a 50-foot-high pile of scrap metal burned at the Port of Tampa.

On-scene firefighters likened it to a metal "volcano rising up from the ground," Tampa Fire Rescue spokesman Capt. Bill Wade said. He didn't know what caused the blaze. Crews worked throughout the day to quell the smoldering metals from Trademark Metals Recycling, but the fire was expected to burn into this morning.

The Hillsborough County Environmental Protection Commission warned that elevated air pollution levels could affect those with pre-existing respiratory problems.

"It's just like anytime you have fire or smoke," said Alain Watson, air toxic specialist for the EPC, "If you're sensitive to the smoke you've got to get out of it."

Winds pushed the smoke from 4201 Maritime Blvd. across Hillsborough Bay toward Apollo Beach and Ruskin throughout the day. The smoke was expected to move southwest overnight.

Tampa firefighters sprayed the fire with a foam product mixed with water, which Wade said would allow deeper penetration into the pile.

Amateur photographers Julie Wright, 25, and Taylor Goodwill, 26, drove to a boat ramp on Davis Islands to shoot a few frames.

"I just wonder what it is exactly that's burning and how it started," Goodwill said.

The scrap pile, a "potpourri of debris," might have included grease, oil, plastics and other flammable material, Wade said.

Investigators initially believed scrap metal in a shredder may have caused the fire. But Trademark president Ron Laker said the fire likely started about 5 a.m., before shredding began.

Laker said the company, the largest metal recycler in the Southeast, according to its Web site, is "always vigilant" about the possibility of a large fire. "They're not very common," he said.

Friday's fire marks the second industrial fire at the port since September, when flames erupted inside a boiler room at the Amalie Oil Co. That blaze caused an estimated $2-million in damage.

Friday's sight provided some entertainment.

Quinton Harris, 9, sat on a bench at the Davis Islands dog park with his mother and sister for two hours, trying to recognize shapes in the billowing smoke. Among his sightings: a witch.

[Last modified November 30, 2007, 22:21:58]