Several fire departments respond to fire at American Ecycle on Saturday
Several fire departments and local agencies respond to a commercial fire this past weekend.
According to Chief Jamey Gettys the initial call came in at 1:51 p.m. on Saturday, June 4, at American Ecycle, located at 1150 Turner Road, in Eastanollee.
Eastanollee Fire Department is the primary coverage station for this business but due to it being a commercial structure fire, other units were dispatched as well including Carnes Creek Fire, Martin Fire, Stephens County EMS and Sheriff’s Department.
Gettys says they called Toccoa Fire for mutual aid assistance and had various other firefighters from around the county come in and help.
Other agencies that came to assist: Stephens County Road Department, Georgia Forestry and Hart County EMC.
Upon arrival, Gettys established command and reported heavy fire conditions in the 25,000 sq. Ft. commercial structure.
He says they had multiple explosions and heavy smoke and fire conditions.
Firefighting efforts were slow at first due to the fire hydrant being grown up in the weeds and could not be located for several minutes.
American Ecycle is a recycling company that deals in electric vehicle lithium batteries, old computer equipment and other electric e-waste.
There were over 500,000 pounds of lithium batteries alone which caused the most trouble because Gettys says they are almost impossible to extinguish.
The fire was under control around 5PM Saturday and the last unit left the scene at 11:15 PM.
Gettys says they extinguished the majority of the fire but left a few small areas to burn themselves out due to nature of the fire being almost impossible to extinguish and to avoid more toxic runoff into the water system.
There were two Firefighters who needed medical treatment but no major injuries.
The road department placed a sign out front stating that the fire was under control in an effort to curb 911 calls.
Gettys adds that the State Fire Marshalls Office and EPD have both been notified as well.