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Sept. 16--The cause of a blaze at a Holly Hill business is still undetermined, Orangeburg County Fire Service Chief Operations Officer Teddy Wolfe said Thursday.
"There are still too many possibilities that we are looking at right now," Wolfe said.
Departments from across Orangeburg County joined firefighters from Berkeley, Charleston and Colleton counties to extinguish the conflagration Wednesday at Don's Car Crushing on White Sands Road.
Wolfe is estimating damage to the facility at $5 million.
Asked if the company would be charged in order to recoup the cost of resources used on the fire, Wolfe said he was uncertain "at this time."
"I hope so," Wolfe said. "A lot of foam was used and many of our fire departments don't have the ability to quickly recover that item.
"Although the fire service has used more than that before, I've never personally supervised the amount that was used on this fire."
The fire originated from two story-and-a-half tall piles of what was described as "fluff." Each was 50 by 100 feet in width. Wolfe said the "fluff" is composed of cut-up pieces of vehicles, including glass, metal, rubber and other parts. He estimates about 6,000 to 10,000 tons of the car debris caught fire.
South Carolina Department of Health and Environmental Control spokesman Jim Beasley said the agency received no complaints about problems associated with the fire.
"Once it's over with, the smoke is gone," Beasley said. "We were concerned at the time. After we were notified, air quality monitoring equipment was taken to the scene but no significant readings were indicated.
"Since folks in the Boyer community were closest to the fire and downwind, we also sent a team there. They did not pick up significant readings, either."
A message left at the company's office Thursday was not returned. Don's Car Crushing also has sites in Conway, Hemingway, Ladson and Sellers.
Contact the writer: [email protected] or 803-533-5540.
