A warehouse fire in New Jersey shut down part of a major roadway as it raged through the night and continued to burn Friday morning, its thick plumes of black smoke visible from several surrounding counties.
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The blaze did not pose an imminent public health threat, officials said.
A stretch of Route 206 is closed in Hillsborough, Someset County, Thursday afternoon and smoke from the fire at Veterans Industrial Park can be seen for miles. Just what sparked the blaze inside these warehouses storing furniture, records, and plastic pellets is still unknown, but crews were able to contain the flames to just two buildings.
Most of the water being used to fight the fire are coming from tankers. The water freezes, apparatuses have run into issues and the 50 to 100 firefighters working at any one time have to be regularly rotated. “This is a very old facility, the water supply that’s in here; the water lines that are underground in here are very old and small”, Weniger said.
The fire department says the actual warehouses are owned by the federal government, which leases them out to companies, who then sublet the space. It was on an adjacent property and the last shipment of mercury left the township for Nevada in December 2010.
The fire has been contained, but smoke continues to billow.
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“Air quality is being monitored by the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection”, according to a press release from Hillsborough police, which advised people in the area to stay indoors.
