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Firefighters battle blaze at Chilhowie scrap yard

By JUSTIN HARMON/Staff

Fearing an explosion, officials stopped traffic going into and out of Chilhowie on Wednesday as a fire blazed in the Berry Iron and Metal scrap yard.
Smyth County Emergency Service Public Information Officer Ken Heath said there were initially concerns that setaline tanks used to power cutting torches could have been involved in the fire; however, no tanks were found. Still he said fire crews battling the blaze took every precaution.
Heath said that after the Chilhowie, Marion and Adwolfe volunteer fire departments dumped 50,000 gallons of foam and water on the 25-foot high stack of scrap metal, a new concern arose.
“Our first big concern was the fear of an explosion,” he said. “Our second was contamination (of the nearby river with firefighting foam). We wanted to avoid an environmental emergency.”
Once the fire was seemingly knocked out, Heath said firefighters began pulling old cars, soda machines and other junk from the pile to get to the center, where, he said, a deep fire was still burning.
Heath said at the scene that no cause had been determined, noting that the cause of a similar fire in the same scrap yard 30 years ago remains undetermined.
“All it takes is the right mix of fuel, air and heat,” he said.
Since a large portion of the scrap pile was old cars, the fear of hazardous waste, such as fuel, oil and battery acid, was there, but Heath said the scrap yard likely removed all those things before letting any of the cars join the pile.