Houston Chronicle
(TNS)
Apr. 24—About two football fields worth of rubber products were on fire late Wednesday night at a Houston recycling facility, authorities said.
The Houston Fire Department responded to reports of an initial warehouse fire around 11 p.m. at Derichebourg Recycling USA on 7501 Wallisville Road. When firefighters arrived they found flames more than 40 feet high from the back of the facility, said Jimmy Campbell with the Houston Fire Department.
Around sixty firefighters were at the scene trying to extinguish the fire, according to Campbell. Campbell said Hazmat was called to the scene right away and started monitoring the air quality.
"Unfortunately, with these complexes like this, we're limited because the hydrants are all the way on the streets," Campbell said. "Fortunately, on an issue like this, it's really just a big trash fire with no exposures and no health hazards at that time. So we have some time to get the water supply, take our time and do it right."
It was unclear if there were any injuries reported. The investigation was ongoing as of 6 a.m. Thursday.
Derichebourg Recycling has a dozen locations in the Houston and Oklahoma City areas. The company does waste management, industrial cleaning and other services, in addition to recycling and collecting scrap metal.
The company declined to comment about the fire Thursday morning when reached at the Wallisville Road location's phone number.
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