Car Crusher Fire in Putnam County
PUTNAM COUNTY, TN- December 16th, 2009. Submitted by: Josh Womack.
A dangerous fire broke out at a West Broad Street auto business on Tuesday as junk cars were being crushed by a machine for recycling purposes. It happened around 11 a.m. at C.D. Auto Sales at 2704 W. Broad St., according to Putnam Fire Chief Darryl Blair, who was the first firefighter on the scene.
Blair said Cooper Recycling of Livingston had a large vehicle crushing machine at the auto sales lot for the purpose of crushing and compacting several junk cars. In the process, one of the vehicles caught fire. “We don’t know exactly what caused the fire — I think it started in a vehicle that had just come out of the crusher — but it spread to the other vehicles pretty quick. They also had some gas tanks stacked up there that had been removed from the cars, and all this was taking place just about 10 feet away from the building, which is a wood structure with siding,” Blair said.
With Blair and firefighter Troy Tayes being the first two firefighters to arrive and the fire spreading quickly, “we had a pretty tough time, needing manpower and more water,” he said. A second volunteer crew from the county fire department soon arrived, but had only two firefighters, and Blair then called for help from the Baxter Fire Department and the Cookeville Fire Department under the mutual aid agreement. Both sent trucks and crews, but they still had a hard time protecting the building and other vehicles on the lot while trying to put out the fire, he said.
“We had to spray a massive amount of foam and water to suppress the flames, but once we got everybody there, we did get a handle on it.” He said the fire damaged the large crushing machine and also caused some heat damage to the siding on the building, but no one was seriously injured. One firefighter, Kyle Ochsenbein, injured his hand, but was later treated and released from the hospital. “All the firefighters did a great job on this fire,” Blair said. “The outcome would have been a whole lot worse without the good job they did.” As he left the scene after the fire had been put out, other equipment was being brought in to remove the crushed and burned cars, he said.
