Side of a fire truck with the letters MFD
Fire
Chris Carbon, Fire Chief

Large Industrial Metal Shredder Catches Fire On City's East Side

  • Location

    4400 block Sycamore Ave.
    Madison, WI

  • Incident Date

    Dispatch: Aug. 3, 2015 - 10:38am
    Controlled: Aug. 3, 2015 - 11:37am

  • Incident Type

    Structure

43.114774, -89.3069776

This map displays an approximate location.

Updates

This report has been updated to include photos from the incident. Fire crews needed to use two different hydrants to attack this fire. Due to the large distance between the second hydrant and the fire scene, firefighters connected multiple hoses and ran them to Aerial Ladder 8 (pictured). The hose spanned across the street, through a parking lot, into the scrap yard, and up to the bucket from which firefighters attacked the fire. Utilizing the new Aerial Ladder bucket, acquired by the Madison Fire Department in May, allowed our crews to confront this fire from a safe distance while ensuring that nobody was injured in the process.

Incident Details

The Madison Fire Department was called to Alter Metal Recycling (4400 Sycamore Ave.) at 10:48 a.m. Monday, August 3, for a reported commercial fire. Engine 3 arrived first to find smoke coming from the 2nd and 3rd floor levels of a large industrial recycling shredder. A vehicle inside the shredder was on fire.
 
Engine 3 shut down the electrical supply to the shredder as other fire crews arrived on scene. Engine 3 climbed onto the roof of the shredder facility and began attacking the fire. They soon cleared the way for Aerial Ladder 8 to apply water from above at 1,000 gallons per minute.
 
While Aerial Ladder 8 continued attacking the fire on the shredder, Engine 3 connected to a second hydrant and turn their attention to a debris fire atop the roof of the electrical building.
 
Crews had the fire under control by 11:37 a.m., and the scene was cleared of any threats of fire at 11:51 a.m.
 
According to Madison Fire Investigation, the fire was caused by sparks from a welding torch used in the area just prior to the incident. Nobody was hurt.

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The fire caused some discoloration to the metal inside the shredder's chute; there is no estimated dollar loss on this piece of equipment.

Links

Images

Crews lay hose across Sycamore Ave.
Fire attack from aerial ladder 8
Aerial Ladder 8 bucket and fire attack
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