Fire sparked at Norman water treatment plant
Evin Morrison, The Oklahoma Daily
A fire broke out at Norman’s waste treatment plant and burned for about 30 minutes Wednesday, Dec. 5, 2012.
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Kingsley Burns, The Oklahoma Daily
A fire at the Norman waste treatment facility on Jenkins Avenue, which burned for about 30 minutes, burned stacks of plastic water filters and almost one acre of grass Wednesday, Dec. 5, 2012.
A fire broke out at Norman’s waste treatment plant Wednesday.
The fire began around 2 p.m. and burned for about 30 minutes, said Jim Bailey, chief deputy of the Norman Fire Department.
According to Bailey, the fire began when a contractor was cutting some angle iron, which sparked and caught a filter on fire. The contractor immediately called 911, and the fire department responded within five minutes, Bailey said.
There were approximately 15 firefighters at the scene putting out the fire. No one was injured, and no structures were damaged in the fire that burned less than an acre of grass.
The filters that were burned were being removed from the plant to make room for new technology. The rubberized plastic was piled up where the flames broke out.
“Being a rubberized material, a hydrocarbon, causes the black smoke and are typically pretty hard to extinguish with just water,” Bailey said.
Firefighters will remain on the scene soaking the ground to prevent any flames from starting again.
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