Photo by: Jacksonville Fire and Rescue
Firefighters are closely monitoring a fire at a paper recycling plant near Riverside in downtown Jacksonville that sent a large plume of smoke into the air Monday afternoon.
JFRD said the fire call came in around 4:15 p.m. Officials do not believe that any equipment caused the fire, but suspect lithium-ion batteries may have sparked it. said that the fire was at a cardboard recycling plant near the 1500 block of Beaver Street.
The agency added that the situation will be “under control soon” and that crews will be in the area for quite some time to ensure that the fire remains extinguished.
Jacksonville Fire and Rescue crews were seen battling the blaze around 7 p.m. They added that they plan to continue monitoring the site until at least midnight to ensure the fire remains out.
Seeing the large smoke plume was unexpected for Jacksonville University students Andrea Waters and Alex Boutwell.
“It wasn’t huge flames, it was a lot of smoke. We saw it from around University Boulevard just going to get food and we got nosy,” Waters said.
Boutwell added, “40 minutes ago. Yeah, it was much bigger than it was now like we were, it was very visible from the road.”
The recycling plant processes about 99% paper products. Aaron Bebernitz, district chief and public information officer for JFRD, said air quality is not a concern.
“Right now, the wind is steadily pushing the smoke and fumes up and out. So there’s no threat to the community at this time in regards to smoke,” Bebernitz said.
When asked about their curiosity, Waters said, “We don’t really got a lot of social life. This is our social life so we get the phone where we can. It was either this or go take a nap. So we decide let’s go chase a fire possibly.”
Boutwell added, “Yeah, I mean, we are generally nosy. If something happens, we’re kind of there. This has happened more than one time.”
JFRD confirmed no injuries have been reported. Crews will remain on site until at least midnight to monitor the situation.
The State Fire Marshal’s Office has also been contacted so it can investigate the incident.
Live camera footage of the area shows multiple crews at the scene attempting to extinguish the flames.
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Source: news4jax
