Massive fire destroys Windsor, Ont. plastics recycler

A huge fire has destroyed a Windsor, Ont. plastics recycling plant.

The blaze occurred at the 15,000-square-foot headquarters of plastics scrap recycler Sprucewood Industries.

The fire broke out just after 3 p.m. on May 21. The plant was occupied at the time, but no one inside was injured. A Windsor firefighter was taken to hospital with heat-related injuries, news reports said, but was released.

Eyewitnesses described thick black smoke and potentially toxic fumes billowing from the plant for several hours on the afternoon of the fire.

“There was upwards of 120,000 pounds of plastics stored on site and at one point 75 per cent of it was burning,” Steve Laforet, Windsor’s deputy fire chief, told local reporters.

According to fire officials, they had been on site to inspect the plastic recycling plant in the past, and the last inspection was in 2008.

The City of Windsor issued a state of emergency Tuesday night and residents within a 1.5-kilometre radius of the fire were asked to stay in their homes. It was lifted by 10:30 p.m.

Representatives from the Office of the Ontario Fire Marshal, Windsor police and Windsor fire are now on the scene to probe the cause of the massive blaze.