More than 200 firefighters have contained a massive 11-alarm blaze near a pool chemical facility in Passaic, New Jersey that raged overnight in frigid conditions.
Smoke from the fire was thick enough to be seen on weather radar and as far as neighbouring New York City on 14 January into the early morning hours on 15 January.
Passaic Mayor Hector Lora, who streamed on Facebook Live near the site of the fire overnight, said the blaze was “the worst that I’ve ever seen.”
Video posted on social media on Friday night showed flame balls erupting on the side of a highway, with smoke and flames appearing to reach nearby trees and buildings.
Passaic Fire Chief Patrick Trentacost said that the vacant building where the fire started was being used to store plastics, pallets and some chlorine. Emergency calls were placed to tell Passaic residents and residents of Bergen County to close their windows, and environmental officials continue to monitor air quality.
Qualco, near the site of the blaze, has been a local staple for more than 30 years producing and distributing chemicals used to treat pools and spas, according to NorthJersey.com.
The company’s daily inventory in 2020 maintained several kinds of chemicals, from 500 pounds of sodium hexametaphosphate to 500,000 pounds of the industrial disinfectant trichloroisocyanuric acid, according to data collected by the state Department of Environmental Protection.
The Passaic Fire Department used the facility in the 1990s as a training site for responding to chemical disasters, NorthJersey.com reported.
No major injuries were reported; one firefighter was sent to a nearby hospital with a laceration to their face, and more than a dozen firefighters slipped and fell, Chief Trentacost reported on Saturday morning.
Smoke could be seen at the source of the contained fire on Saturday morning, though officials said the blaze will need to be entirely extinguished before an investigation can begin to determine its cause.
