PORT ST. LUCIE, Fla. (Oct. 8, 2010)—Firefighters have contained a fire that began in a pile of shredded tires at the Liberty Tire Recycling facility in Port St. Lucie, said a spokeswoman for St. Lucie County Fire Rescue. The fire was the second at the property in five weeks, she said.
The fire department received the call at about 1:45 p.m. Oct. 6, and there were still eight to 10 firefighters on the scene as of 2:45 p.m. Oct. 7, according to the spokeswoman. “The fire is essentially out, but there have been a few flare-ups, the most recent at 10 a.m.,” she said.
Damage from the fire was restricted to shredded and whole tires at the site, according to the spokeswoman. “At one point yesterday there were four acres on fire, but the firefighters got it down to one acre pretty quickly,” she said.
Deterioriation of the tire shreds under excessive heat caused the fire, the spokeswoman said. She cited similar causes for another fire in the same area of the Liberty Tire property Aug. 31. That fire took four days to put out, she said.
The fire department billed Liberty Tire $69,000 for the cost of putting out the Aug. 31 fire, the spokeswoman said.
Officials of Liberty Tire could not be reached for comment.