Massive RI Junkyard Blaze Reaches Five Alarms

Fire at a Smithfield junkyard shot flames more than 100 feet into the air and threatened to spread to nearby houses before firefighters were able to bring it under control, according to the Smithfield Fire Department.

Firefighters from 10 Rhode Island communities and one Massachusetts town turned out to fight the blaze at Five Star Auto Salvage on Douglas Pike, according to Smithfield Fire Department Deputy Chief Steve Quattrini.

The five-alarm fire burned about 100 vehicles and kept firefighters working from about 8 p.m. Monday until 5 a.m. Tuesday, Quattrini said.

In the darkness, firefighters had to work their way around cars stacked three to four vehicles high across the four-acre yard. The blaze was whipped by wind, spawning a "mini firestorm," Quattrini said.

"These fires are dangerous during the day. In the nighttime, it's multiplied by 100," he said. "We're very fortunate nobody got killed." Several neighbors called to report the fire around 8 p.m., but the first Smithfield firefighters found their access blocked by a locked gate and heavy machinery, Quattrini said.

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After firefighters cut the lock, firefighter Mark Jackvony "hot-wired" a front-end loader, which was blocking the fire trucks, and used it to move other vehicles out of the way, Quattrini said.

The fire spread quickly and the effort to extinguish it was also complicated because the nearest fire hydrant was about a mile away, according to Quattrini.

"We were just overwhelmed for 40 minutes," he said.

A big concern was that flames would jump a narrow access road at the back of the yard and spread to houses "a couple hundred feet" away, Quattrini said.

"We thought for sure the fire was going to jump that road," he said.

With the burning cars throwing off intense heat, firefighters had to get on their bellies to hold their ground and avoid getting burned, according to Quattrini.

"It was either fight or flight, and my guys dug in there," he said. "It was a great job by everybody."