Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, March 22, 1991 TAG: 9103220942
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: A6 EDITION: EVENING
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: WAKEFIELD LENGTH: Short
A force of 150 firefighters fought the flames Thursday.
"It looks like it's going to be a long, drawn-out affair," said Dallas Bowden, chief of the Wakefield Volunteer Fire Department. "It's all that petroleum and oil stuff in the tires. It will sit there and burn and burn and burn."
The blaze at the defunct Tri-City Tire Co., near the Wakefield Municipal Airport, started about 9 p.m. Wednesday. It spread quickly across the three-acre plot that authorities say holds 500,000 to 750,000 discarded tires. Some tires are buried and others stacked 25 feet high.
"This is a suspicious fire and we're treating it as such," Sussex County Sheriff Stuart Kitchen said.
Arson investigators were brought in late Thursday.
"Tires burn at a high temperature. . . . Tires do not spontaneously ignite," said Cheryl Cashman, legislative liaison for the state Department of Waste Management.
Environmental damage from the fire is being assessed.
by CNB