Visitors 35
Modified 13-May-24
Created 25-Mar-24
87 photos
Around 1330 hours on Wednesday, March 20, 2024 Engine 58 was dispatched to investigate smoke in the area. A few minutes later Engine 55 and Truck 23 were also dispatched to investigate smoke in their neighborhood. In a few minutes all three companies came upon heavy smoke emanating from what looked like a large warehouse in the 1400 block of West Hamburg Street. The smoke was coming from the Berg Recycling scrap yard at Hamburg and Bayard Streets in the Pigtown/Washington Village neighborhood of southwest Baltimore. The rest of the fire box was requested for a fire that was burning in a large pile of scrap metal next to a large open warehouse. It was thought that the fire had gotten into the adjacent warehouse. Heavy black smoke was billowing and could be seen throughout most of the Baltimore area. Representatives from the Maryland Department of the Environment were also on the scene urging residents in the area to stay indoors and close their windows to avoid the smoke from the fire.
Nearly 100 firefighters surrounded the fire from inside the yard as well as from the streets around the yard and attacked the fire with ladder pipes and monitor pipes. Command requested the working fire assignment and filled out the second alarm after several special calls in the next 15 minutes. The fire was contained to the large pile of materials and there was no involvement to the adjacent warehouse. The warehouse was an open 2-story steel storage structure with a metal roof over it.
Units continued to pour water on the pile and the fire was brought under control in less than two hours. No injuries to the workers or firefighters were reported. It was surmised that cutting or welding operations in the yard may have ignited combustible materials within the pile of scrap metal.
Nearly 100 firefighters surrounded the fire from inside the yard as well as from the streets around the yard and attacked the fire with ladder pipes and monitor pipes. Command requested the working fire assignment and filled out the second alarm after several special calls in the next 15 minutes. The fire was contained to the large pile of materials and there was no involvement to the adjacent warehouse. The warehouse was an open 2-story steel storage structure with a metal roof over it.
Units continued to pour water on the pile and the fire was brought under control in less than two hours. No injuries to the workers or firefighters were reported. It was surmised that cutting or welding operations in the yard may have ignited combustible materials within the pile of scrap metal.
© Howard Meile III