If you saw a towering pillar of thick black smoke on the northern horizon this afternoon around 4pm and feared the worst, you can allay those fears. While it was certainly a smoky fire and briefly had some sizable flames to go along for the ride, the crew at Padnos Recycling Center on Paw Paw Avenue a couple of blocks away from Whirlpool’s World Headquarters campus, report firefighters had it quickly under control and taken care of.
According to one eyewitness on the scene, crews at Padnos were moving around junk cars and some of the sparks generated by the movement ignited gas remaining in one of the vehicle’s tanks, causing a small explosion and resulting in the very smoky fire that erupted onto the skyline.
At Cornerstone Chamber of Commerce several miles south of the actual scene, Sarah Elizabeth captured the photo on the right shown accompanying this story on Moody on the Market.com. The smoke caused considerable speculation as people tried to pinpoint its location from afar.
The up close photo on the left was provided courtesy of Bob Rogers from the team at Servpro of Berrien County. There were no reports of injuries in the incident.
The Benton Harbor Department of Public Safety responded to the scene at 1410 Paw Paw Avenue along with Benton Township firefighters who were able to respond quickly to the scene which was only about half a mile from the fire station on Enterprise Way.
Upon arrival, authorities say it was discovered that a scrapped vehicle had caught on fire. The vehicle’s gas tank had not been emptied and it initiated the fire during movement of the vehicle pile by Padnos personnel. The spilled flammable fluids spread on the ground causing a nearby pile of other scrapped vehicles to ignite.
Benton Charter Township Fire Department attacked the south side of the vehicle pile while Benton Harbor fire fighters attacked the east and west side of the pile. The fire was ultimately brought under control.
Padnos personnel assisted in the effort by moving several scrapped vehicles in order to allow fire crews to attack the seat of the heat source within the pile.
The fire was fully extinguished at approximately 6:20PM.
