WALKER, Mich. -- Workers at Padnos Iron and Metal were moving scrap items into a shredder late Thursday night when a fire ignited that sent flames shooting 80 to 100 feet into the air. Walker fire units arrived shortly after midnight and had a difficult time due to layers of scrap metal in the ignited pile, said Walker Fire Department Battalion Chief Don Munn.
Rain helped a bit, but not much, and the wind changed direction several times as crews fought the fire, delaying their efforts against the blaze that much more. "When we would move a pile and we would start hitting on what's burning, then the wind would shift, and it would start the pile that we just moved on fire. So, we were kind of fighting ourselves," said Munn.
Even lightning worked against the firefighters, but Munn credited a dispatcher for helping with updates on the location of incoming storms.
There was nothing toxic in the scrap despite the presence of appliances and even vehicles. Padnos removes chemicals such as coolants and fuel from scrap before shredding it, Munn said.
All of the Padnos workers are accounted for, and there are no reported injuries.
Fire crews had several hours more of working on completely dousing the fire, said Munn at 5 a.m. One problem, he said, was that the scrap contained some magnesium, which spreads the fire when water hits it.
