Hundreds of firefighters continue to battle a10-alarm blaze at a New York commercial waste center Thursday.
The massive fire broke out shortly before 9 p.m. Wednesday at the Jamaica Ash & Rubbish Removal facility on Long Island, WABC-TV reports. Flames collapsed part of the building, and the size of the facility and the materials housed there have created challenges for crews.
"What made the operation very hard is the building is basically full, floor to ceiling, of garbage and packaged garbage which is ready to be shipped," Westbury Fire Chief Kenneth Gass told WNBC-TV. "So we had to attack it from the exterior. Not being able to attack it from all sides caused a delay in the tactics and real hardship for the fire department."Over 300 firefighters from 60 departments in Nassau and Suffolk counties responded to the fire, which disrupted service along the Long Island Rail Road. Officials were concerned that the facility's walls could collapse onto nearby tracks.
The fire was raised to 10 alarms at around 6:45 a.m., only about an hour after it had reached six alarms. Crews were able to get the flames under control by 11 a.m., and no injuries were reported.
While battling the fire at the waste facility, Long Island firefighters also were tackling a residential fire in Garden City that killed three people. Both calls meant all of Nassau County's 71 departments were dispatched at the same time, according to WABC.
