Park City recycling plant fire now under control. Crews continue to monitor hot spots

Sedgwick County Fire Marshal Brad Crisp announced Wednesday afternoon that the fire at Park City’s Evergreen Recycle plant is officially under control, although crews will remain on scene for at least another day.

Some piles of materials were still smoldering, but there were no more flames as of 3 p.m., county spokesperson Stephanie Birmingham said.

Thirteen firefighters and officials remained on scene, using bulldozers and other heavy machinery to push burn piles together so they could be compacted and saturated with water.

The county fire department plans to leave a single crew of three firefighters on scene to monitor hot spots this evening and through Thursday, Birmingham said. Crews won’t spray water on debris unless there is a flare-up.

Last time the recycling plant caught fire in October 2022, video evidence showed the blaze was a result of mulch and grass spontaneously igniting under wood piles. This time, investigators likely won’t be able to identify a definite cause, Fire Chief Doug Williams told county commissioners Wednesday morning.

“It’s going to be one that’s probably going to end up being undetermined. We didn’t have video on this one,” he said.

Commissioner David Dennis asked Williams what he expects the bill to be for overtime pay and whether the county should make a claim on the recycling facility’s insurance to cover costs.

“One of the problems we get into if we bill for services is, you have to bill everybody,” Williams said. “You can’t just selectively say, ‘Well, this guy really upset us so we’re going to bill him.’ We have to bill everybody. And I think that normally is what causes the failure of these insurances to pay. The first thing they’re going to say is, ‘Well, you didn’t bill the last fire you went to.’”

Williams said overtime expenses will likely be minimal. After the initial emergency response Sunday night, the county has relied on rotating crews of on-duty firefighters to control the blaze. Several neighboring fire departments assisted in the early going and the Kansas Air National Guard joined the effort Tuesday, making 15 aerial water drops.

Evergreen Recycle passed a county fire inspection just weeks before the blaze. Williams said the owner has consistently maintained 50 feet of separation between piles of recyclable materials — 20 feet more than the municipal code requires.

“The fire did jump the first 50-foot break, but we did get it shut down where it didn’t get across the second 50-foot break, so that was fortunate for us and for the buildings to the north,” Williams said. No other houses or businesses have been affected by the fire.

Williams said he would like to see the plant maintain a 24-hour security presence.

“If this fire gets reported when it’s really small, we have a lot better chance of it not getting to this point,” he said.

This story was originally published June 26, 2024 at 1:11 PM.