Firefighters calm blaze at WM-owned MRF in New Hampshire

A fire broke out at a WM facility in Rochester, New Hampshire, on the morning of Oct. 28. As reported by Foster’s Daily Democrat, the fire started at 4:52 a.m. at the Houston-based company’s material recovery facility located at 479 Steele Road.

“The fire sprinkler system activated, which helped keep the fire from growing rapidly,” Rochester Assistant Fire Chief Tim Wilder told the Daily Democrat. “We called for a tanker task force due to a lack of water supply.”

According to fire officials, no workers were in the building at the time of the fire and no injuries were reported.

“A large portion of contents that were on fire were moved to the exterior of the building,” Wilder says, adding that a large portion of personnel remained onsite for the rest of the day to extinguish the remaining areas of material that were still on fire.

The firefighter crews departed shortly after 11:30 a.m. Wilder says Rochester firefighters received mutual aid from Somersworth, Denver, Barrington, Stafford, Wakefield, Rollinsford, Pease and Lebanon, Maine.

Waste Today has reached out to WM for comment regarding the fire.