City orders full call back for weekend fire

A fire Saturday at Henson Trash Service and Transfer Station, 355 Cravens Road, was an uncommon situation, said Poplar Bluff Fire Chief Mike Moffitt.

The fire kept crews busy from 9:21 a.m. to after 1 p.m.

The blaze included the building at Henson, tires and portable restrooms.

According to fire reports, the city’s aerial truck was put in service to try to extinguish the burning tires and the 45 portable restrooms.

“Half of our staff had been up since 1:45 that morning working a structure fire on Lester Street,” Moffitt said. “They got off shift at 07:00 and had to come straight back and work at the Henson transfer fire. So by the end of the day, they were exhausted. They all did a great job.”

Moffitt explained, B shift originally had responded to a house fire on Lester Street at 1:45 a.m. Saturday. C shift responded to the rekindle on Lester Street at 9:13 a.m. and “were on scene when we got the call for Henson transfer.”

Station 1 remained on scene at Lester Street and finished extinguishing that fire.

“Stations 2 and 3 responded, that’s five men, went to Henson. Once they arrived on scene and assessed the situation, they realized they had to have more help,” the chief said. “We then called for a full call back and ended up with 21 men on the scene.”

The Lester Street fire is under investigation by the state fire marshal’s office.

Workers at Henson believe both fires may have been caused by the remains of a burn barrel smoldering in trash that was dropped off at the site and then reignited.

Once the Henson fire was extinguished, the firefighters still had more work to complete because of the type of material that burned.

“Due to the nature of the fire, we had to wash all of our fire hose before we could load it back onto the fire trucks,” Moffitt said. “So we kept the call back personnel to assist in washing and reloading the fire hose. Additionally all the men’s fire gear will have to be washed before it could be put back in service. It will take three days to get it all washed.”

This is the second fire that firefighters have had at Henson. The first one was contained to the trash disposals building and caused minimal damage to the building.

“The fire they had Saturday caused considerably more damage to the building,” Moffitt said. “But, I’ve heard they would still be open for business (Monday).”

According to Moffitt, “the staff at Henson’s were really appreciative and did everything they could to assist us with anything we needed.”

The multiple shifts used 35,000 gallons of water and 110 gallons of foam in battling the fire.

Once the tire fire was partially under control, the interior attack resumed extinguishing the remaining trash burning inside the structure. Foam was used to extinguish the tires. A front-end loader was used to break down the piles of tires to complete the overhaul as well as inside the transfer station to separate the piles of trash.

As soon as a water supply was deployed through the open bay doors, another crew repositioned to make an exterior attack on an approximately 30-foot by 60-foot pile of used tires with a booster tank.

Also at the scene were the Poplar Bluff Police Department, Butler County EMS and Department of Natural Resources.