Replies

Yes, they're saying burning rubber and that they fire is in the rubber part of the plant.

All the hydraulic oil in the machines is helping keep the fires buring as well. Some of these machines need 50-500 gallons of in order to operate.

I have a bad feeling this fire will be burning for some time.

Rubber fires are very difficult to extinguish. I used to be in the auto salvage business and one of our competitors would have a bi-annual tire fire to get rid of his bad tires. They would burn for days.

A commodity plant like this would have the material stored in hoppers outside or near the building with a feeding system to draw it to the machines. However it is possible that they had several gaylords of resin stored. Plastic usually is stored in 500 or 1000 or even 2000 (0r 1102 and 2204lb ) gaylords, or in pallets of 50 or 55 lb bags. A plant like this would have a LOT of material on site.

Remember rubber is really plastic and comes in miniscule pellet form. It would not take long for it to combust, especially considering the gaylords are cardboard and the bags are plastic, and the base chemicals are hydrocarbon oil based compounds.