HUDSON – Firefighters have contained a fire at a large tire recycling facility in northern Colorado to 7.5 acres and hope to have the fire mostly extinguished Thursday.
The fire near Hudson broke out Wednesday night, sending up plumes of dark smoke visible from far away.
A fire sparked by lightning burned 30 acres of tires at the site in 1987, sending up black smoke that was visible by pilots in Wyoming and Nebraska. Firefighters consulted with the incident commander from that fire, who now serves as board president of the Platteville-Gilcrest Fire Protection District, and brought in heavy equipment like bulldozers and dump trucks to surround the burning tires with dirt, district spokesperson Matt Concialdi said. The berms of dirt helped stopped the spread of the fire and the dirt is also being pushed on the fire to extinguish it, similar to how a campfire is extinguished, he said.
Tires retain a lot of heat so some hot spots could remain within the tires after the flames are gone.
