Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, May 13, 1990 TAG: 9005130266
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B6 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Southwest bureau
DATELINE: CANA LENGTH: Medium
A caller to the Cana Fire Department about 12:30 a.m. said the fire was in a building, Chief M.C. Marsh said, but "we got down there and it was an old tire dump where they'd piled up tires in it." He said the blaze appeared to have been set.
A plume of thick, black smoke rose from the fire, which was reported about 11:30 p.m. Friday and did not die down until about 2 p.m. Saturday, said Franklin Towe, the emergency-services coordinator for Carroll County.
"The smoke looked like you could almost swim in it, it was so thick," Towe told the Winston-Salem (N.C.) Journal.
Towe said that emergency workers started worrying about runoff from the fire, because no one was sure exactly what was in the dump.
Lovill's Creek, a source of water for Mount Airy, is near the tire dump.
"The fact that it was involving their water supply made it that much worse," Towe said.
Marsh said reports of old drums having been dumped among the tires concerned the firefighters because nobody knew what might be in them.
Emergency equipment including bulldozers were rushed to the scene.
Eight departments - Cana and Hillsville from Carroll County and the rest from North Carolina - worked for the next 15 hours to bring the fire under control.
The dump is just off U.S. 52, south of Cana and about three-quarters of a mile above the Virginia-North Carolina border.
Traffic on U.S. 52 was stopped because of the heavy smoke until about 3 p.m. on Saturday, when people were also allowed to return to their homes in the area.
One firefighter was taken to Northern Hospital of Surry County in Mount Airy, where he was being treated for smoke inhalation and chest pains.
A spokesman for the hospital said that Doyle Montgomery, of the Cana Volunteer Fire Department, was in stable condition in the intensive-care unit.
Several other firefighters were treated at the hospital and at the scene of the fire, Towe said.
Towe said he expects the fire to smolder for about two or three days.
Workers will continue to watch the dump and the check the creek, he said.
Ralph J. "Bob" Martin Jr., chairman of the Carroll County Board of Supervisors and the county's emergency services coordinator, said he was declaring the fire a disaster.
County Administrator Clinton Swain said the designation would help obtain reimbursements for some of the emergency materials that had to be used.
The Associated Press contributed information for this story.
by CNB