TOPSHAM

A fire broke out in a scrap metal pile at Grimmel Industries in Topsham on Monday night that drew firefighters from Sabattus to Wiscasset to North Yarmouth.

The fire at the metal recycling plant at 80 Pejepscot Village Main St., off River Road, kept several departments on scene or shuttling water from nearby hydrants for hours.

The fire was reported shortly after 6 p.m. and many didn’t head home until around 2 a.m. today. The scene was cleared shortly before 3 a.m.

Topsham Fire Chief Brian Stockdale said a 200-by-200- foot area of scrap metal was engulfed in flames.

“Our biggest issue is really water supply,” he said at 8:30 p.m. Monday. “None of the hydrants in the system here work.”

There are at least three hydrants, so it is a big problem.

“We’ll work with the company to make sure we can address those issues,” the chief said.

Firefighters drew water from two hydrant locations on Route 196 and another on Ivanhoe Drive and tankers were constantly shuttling water to portable tanks set up on scene. Once enough manpower arrived and the water supply was established things went pretty smoothly, Stockdale said.

What was burning were flattened cars and tires, but with a 50- foot-high pile it was difficult to get to the fire.

Grimmel has equipment, essentially long arms and a claw-like mechanism on the end used to pick and sort through debris, which the fire department put to use.

“Now we’re using one of their claws to try to make a line break so it doesn’t travel into the rest of the pile,” Stockdale said while firefighters battled the blaze. “A lot of the fire is underneath the pile. It travels through the voids in the pile so you can’t really get to it without pulling a lot of the stuff off.”

Once the ignited area of the pile was isolated, firefighters started moving pieces, extinguishing fire as they went. Stockdale expected the entire pile would be moved by the end of the operation.

Not first fire

This wasn’t the first fire at Grimmel and many of the firefighters on scene Monday had been there before.

“We kind of had a plan in place already. People already knew the challenges, so that’s quite helpful,” Stockdale said.

There was black smoke rolling off the scrap pile, filling portions of the town including the Topsham Fair Mall with a haze of smoke. Stockdale said all the fire crews down wind from the fire had air packs on for protection.

As of 8:30 p.m., no one was hurt, food was on the way and Stockdale said an extended operation awaited them.

Stockdale said he didn’t know the cause of the blaze, though in the past the piles have internal heat that can ignite fires. That is just one of the potential triggers the fire department will look at.

The last fire at Grimmel involved scrap metal in a rail car used for storage in July of 2013. According to a Bangor Daily News report on the fire, it was the seventh since a fire in 1995 caused more than $1 million in damage and was determined to be arson. A July 2004 fire drew firefighters from 17 departments and destroyed several buildings. There was also a fire in September 2009.

dmoore@timesrecord.com

Fire history

• THE LAST FIRE at Grimmel involved scrap metal in a rail car used for storage in July of 2013. According to a Bangor Daily News report on the fire, it was the seventh since a fire in 1995 caused more than $1 million in damage and was determined to be arson. A July 2004 fire drew firefighters from 17 departments and destroyed several buildings. There was also a fire in September 2009.