PORT ANGELES – Firefighters returned Sunday morning to quell a tire and debris fire that first erupted Saturday at an illegal dump site off Eclipse Parkway in Port Angeles.
Three agencies, including Clallam County fire districts No. 2 and No. 4 and the Port Angeles Fire Department, returned to the site of the fire where flames had re-erupted.
“It is really hard to get to every bit of a fire like this,” Fire Marshal Ken Dubuc said.
“There are tires, branches, leaves, debris.
“It really looks a lot worse than it is because when tires catch on fire they let out a lot of smoke.”
Port Angeles Fire Chief Dan McKeen said he does not suspect arson based on what he has been told so far.
“We will continue to investigate the cause of the fire,” McKeen said.
The property was piled with several acres of discarded cars, mobile homes, refrigerators and other appliances.
The fire was in a ravine near the back of the property. It was extinguished for the most part Saturday, after sending up plumes of black smoke visible for miles.
No structures or neighboring businesses were threatened.
The property is west of the Green Creek Lumber Co., at 436 Eclipse West Drive, which is a spur to the west of the Eclipse Industrial Parkway.
Nearby are Lakeside Industries, Blue Mountain Leasing and the Eclipse Industrial Park, site of Port Angeles Hardwood LLC’s alder and maple sawmill.
Firefighters left the scene at about 5 p.m. on Sunday and were expected to return this morning to make sure the fire was out.
Dubuc said he still wasn’t sure who owned the property.
Since the ravine was at the back of the property, firefighters had to shuttle water back and forth in water tankers from a fire hydrant about a quarter mile away.
