Unfound cinders from a firework are believed to have ignited a small fire at the Lewis County Transfer Station over the weekend, leaving behind scorch marks and “pretty significant damage.”
“We had a literal dumpster fire at the Centralia Transfer Station,” Lewis County Public Works Director Geoff Soderquist.
The station is currently operating at 50% capacity. Residents should expect long delays.
Lewis County Solid Waste Manager Rocky Lyon told the Lewis County Commissioners Tuesday morning that the building itself had been deemed safe but that a nearby equipment room storing air compressors, bench grinders and more was likely a “total loss.”
“We had a City of Centralia inspector come out and deem it OK for us to use one side Sunday after the fire,” Lyon said. “He did come by this morning and allowed us to open up to both sides, as well as someone from our engineering group went over and checked it out and deemed it safe.”
Lyon reported that the fire also damaged a county-owned tractor used at the facility, which is still being evaluated to see if it can be repaired to working order. A LeMay-owned trailer was also damaged.
Lyon warned that residents using the facility should expect significant delays over at least the next two weeks while temporary repairs are underway. Delays may also pop up later as the county takes on more permanent repairs to the facility.
In a Facebook post from Lewis County Solid Waste Utility, the county agency said “customers should expect long lines for the foreseeable future.”
Lyon told the board of commissioners he believed the fireworks were likely dumped intentionally but that the resulting fire was accidental. According to his account, staff at the transfer station first noticed sparks coming from a load of solid waste Saturday afternoon around 3 p.m. and investigated it. They found the sparks were coming from some fireworks which went off after being separated.
The fireworks hit the building and spread cinders across the facility, which staff addressed by wetting down the impacted area.
According to Soderquist, in addition to equipment, the fire also damaged the facility’s electrical system. The electrical system on the north side of the facility is currently “de-energized” and will require electrical work to resume operation.
“Going to be quite a bit of re-running wire and conduit to get just the main solid waste operations back up and running on the north side,” Soderquist said. “We're going to have to run some temporary power to get the scale readouts and everything working again, and then it'll be a matter of permanent repairs and restoration of that equipment room and getting those tools replaced.”
