TOWN OF POUGHKEEPSIE – A two-alarm fire at the Dutchess County Resource Recovery Agency “burn plant” reported just before midnight on Wednesday resulted in several fire departments trying to extinguish a fire in the pile of trash inside of the Sand Dock Road facility.
As of 2:00 a.m. on Thursday, the Arlington Fire Department was assisted at the scene by professional firefighters from Poughkeepsie and LaGrange, along with volunteers from the Roosevelt Fire District, who responded from Hyde Park. They were joined by New Hamburg, New Hackensack, and other fire departments.
Shortly after midnight, the fire was spreading from the large pile of recycling debris toward the wall of the building. Towering ladder trucks were attempting to keep water on the fire but were hindered due to the lack of a steady water supply. On more than one occasion, firefighters were reporting that their ladder trucks were running out of water. Firefighters operating the pumper engines encountered several broken hydrants, hindering the firefighting operations and forcing them to work feverishly to produce a steady flow of water to the water guns closer to the building. fire apparatus had to be relocated around the outside of the structure to continue chasing the flames.
Around 1:00 a.m. on Thursday, a firefighter reported that the fire had burned through the roof of a corner of the building. Water issues continued to plague the efforts, resulting in a series of Roosevelt fire engines hooking up hoses to hydrants more than 3,500 feet away and pulling the hoses to the trucks near the building that were once again out of water.
A tower ladder truck from the Arlington Fire District was able to extend the bucket inside of the structure to put a heavy stream of water on the flames. A heavy equipment operator from the DCRRA was using a “picker” to separate and spread out piles of burning debris to allow firefighters to put water on the smaller piles of flaming debris.
Fire departments from Pleasant Valley and New Hackensack relocated manpower and equipment to Arlington fire stations to provide coverage while Arlington tended to the Sand Dock Road fire.
The cause and origin of the fire are under investigation.
Video of the Arlington tower ladder truck extended into the building to put water on the smoldering heap of flammable materials:
