Virginia Warehouse Fire Still Smoldering

Dec. 19, 2002
Firemen are still on the scene of a smoky fire in a storage warehouse at the Bear Island Paper Company in Hanover County.
>> Watch NBC-12 Video

Firemen are still on the scene of a smoky fire in a storage warehouse at the Bear Island Paper Company in Hanover County.

They are expected to be there into the afternoon. No one has been hurt.

Massive flames could be seen in the recycling warehouse and smoke enveloped the factory.

The fire first broke out about 4:30 Wednesday afternoon.

The first fire companies on the scene quickly called in a second alarm.

At one point, some sixty firefighters from Hanover and Caroline Counties were fighting the blaze.

The warehouse stores large bales of recycled paper. And those bales continue to burn.

One fireman says it's like "pealing an onion." He says once you put out one layer of the fire and peal it back, you find more fire in the layer of paper below.

The plant itself continues to operate. But we're told about 75 percent of the paper in the warehouse has been lost.

>> Watch NBC-12 Video

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