Fire at closed West Virginia steel mill brought under control despite challenges
Heavy smoke poured into the sky above Weirton, West Virginia, on Saturday afternoon as a fire burned inside the closed Cleveland Cliffs steel tin mill.
A small outside crew had been working to scrap material ahead of demolishing the plant when sparks from a torch caught a massive empty tank below a tin-plating line, said Weirton Chief Kevin Himmelrick.
"It just kept growing," Himmelrick said. "There's more than one tank there, so you're trying to keep it from going to the next one."
The fire itself stretched 50 feet inside the plant, but the building's structure never directly caught fire, Himmelrick explained. The fact that plastic was burning contributed to the sheer amount of smoke that could be seen from miles around, he said.
"It's really no different from tires burning," he said.
The tanks were empty and chemical-free because they were washed out, Himmelrick said, saying there was no danger to neighbors.
Himmelrick used to work inside the plant and has fought fires there before, leading him to be familiar with the layout. Still, he said, a challenge was how tight it was inside the mill. But, he said more than that, the biggest challenge they faced was a lack of water.
Because the plant closed down years ago, there was no electricity or water access. Crews from other fire departments had to bring in tankers to bring water to the fire site.
"There were no injuries reported. There was nobody who got hurt," Himmelrick said. "Everything went well. We probably, after we got tankers on scene, we were probably 45 minutes an hour to get it under control."
Crews remained on scene for hours in part because of how easy it is for plastic to reignite. It is the second fire Weirton crews have fought in two days.