Kilgore recycle center fire could burn for days

KILGORE –

UPDATE: The City of Tyler said on Friday that curbside recycling will be paused beginning June 17 until further notice and accounts will not be charged for the duration of the pause. “Rivers Recycling was the current material recovery facility used by the City of Tyler to accept and repurpose curbside recycled materials,” city officials said.

After Wednesday night’s massive fire in Kilgore, officials explained that the flames are still burning and will continue to burn for the next five to seven days according to reporting by KETK. The fire broke out at Rivers Recycling just north of Kilgore, near Interstate 20 on FM 1252. The flames broke out Wednesday evening around 6 p.m. after everyone at the site had left for the day. “No workers or anybody was present when we were out. Tremendous amount of fire load in the building because it’s a recycling plant, so they have a lot of cardboard, plastics,” Kilgore Fire Marshal Ryan Riley said.

First responders from five different departments showed up to fight the intense flames. Working hard to keep it from spreading.

“The fire is contained inside the structure itself. There’s not much danger of anything outside of the area catching on fire, so we’re not really concerned about that,” Riley said.

Crews will be monitoring the burn for the next several days.

“We still have visible in the flames in the building, but you’re still looking possibly at 5-7 days of actual fire burning in the building,” Riley said.

The fire poses a different challenge for first responders, as crews are avoiding the use of water because of the potential negative impact it could have on the environment.

“Water goes right into your creeks and streams so you have to be conscious of that when you’re looking at suppressing fires like this,” Riley said.
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The City of Longview takes its recyclable items to Rivers Recycling, so it is on hold until further notice. Still, homeowners can still leave their trash at the curb.

“For now we’re just taking all recycling along with trash to the landfill,” Richard Yeakley, City Of Longview public information officer, said.

Kilgore Fire explained that at this time, areas near the fire are not in harms way.

“At this time we don’t think there is any danger to the community or local areas,” Riley said.

Riley added that they cannot start an internal investigation until the fire is completely out.