Battling junkyard blaze closes major roadway

TRENTON -- It was just junk burning.

But the latest blaze at Trenton Iron and Metal on Enterprise Avenue in the eastern part of the city yesterday proved a considerable foe for city firefighters, shut down a major highway for hours and forced an evacuation of a private detention center next door.

As curling columns of choking black smoke swirled into the afternoon sky starting at 1:30 p.m., many motorists on side streets near Route 1 in the city and Hamilton and Lawrence borders pulled over out of curiosity.

The fire took longer than anticipated to bring under control, the fire department said, because firefighters had difficulty getting water on the large pile of junk known in the yard as the "mulch pile," where non-metallic parts of junked items like cars are ground up and spit out.

"There's bad water in that area and we had a very, very limited water stream at first," said Battalion Chief Peter Fiabane.

Engine companies laid hose from several blocks away to augment hoses at the seat of the fire and had to back away from the fire at times due to explosions in air conditioning units stored nearby. Several vehicles also were consumed by the flames, Fiabane said.

"(Firefighters) were hit by little bits of shrapnel flying around," Fiabane said.

Eventually, firefighters deployed Ladder 4 from an elevated section of Route 1 right near the burning pile. The aerial water attack proved effective, Fiabane said, but also led to the highway being shut down so engines could supplement the effort. In all, two alarms worth of city firefighters were needed, and fire units from Ewing, Lawrence and Hamilton staffed city firehouses during the blaze.

The fire department had the bulk of the flames and smoke under control by about 3:30 p.m., and reopened Route 1 -- shut down from the Olden Avenue and Whitehead Road exits -- at about 4:30 p.m.

Fiabane said the fire was started by the shredder the company uses. The company told the fire department they recently replaced the foam fire retardant they use in the machine and it does not work very well, Fiabane said.

The machine gets hot and fires are not out of the ordinary, but this one got away from the company and they had to call the fire department for assistance.

Joseph M. Lonchar, the owner of Trenton Iron and Metal, was not immediately available for comment yesterday.

The burning pile was close to the south side of the new three-story wing at the Albert M. "Bo" Robinson Assessment and Treatment Center, a minimum-security detention center.

William J. Palatucci, a vice president and spokesman for Community Education Centers Inc., which owns the facility, said about 175 people were moved to the older part of the center during the fire.

No residents were taken outside of the secure facility and there was no major disruption to activities, Palatucci said. "We were concerned for a while, but the fire department did an excellent job."

Similar major junk-pile fires burned at Trenton Iron and Metal in June of this year and March of 2005; each sent up plumes of smoke and shut down portions of nearby Route 1.