As fire crews continue to separate logs and wood to access hot spots following a massive fire at Camp Small, Baltimore officials are hopeful they’ll be able to reopen the city’s street tree recycling center.
“It’s an important service to the city, and we have to make sure we keep that operation going,” Mayor Brandon Scott said Saturday.
More than 100 firefighters from across the city and surrounding counties worked overnight Thursday to contain the large blaze in Baltimore’s Woodberry neighborhood. Officials shut down portions of Interstate 83 and Cold Spring Lane for hours as strong winds whipped the flames and smoke covered the highway.
“We have made major progress,” Baltimore City Fire Department spokesperson John Marsh said Saturday, adding that the fire has been “completely contained.”
Officials said Friday that logs and woodpiles could smolder for days. The fire department doesn’t have an end date for response efforts, Marsh said, but will provide that as it continues to assess the situation. Heavy equipment, including excavators and bulldozers, was brought in to help contain the fire and go through woodpiles, officials said.
For decades, city crews have piled trees and waste such as large branches at the five-acre collection yard. In recent years, Camp Small has become part of the city’s zero-waste initiative. It makes and sells mulch, firewood, whole logs and lumber.
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Officials haven’t estimated the scope of the damage to the wood supply. But some of Camp Small’s facilities — including the workshop and equipment inside and kiln outside the structure — were undamaged by the fire, officials said Friday.
No injuries were reported, and authorities haven’t determined what caused the fire.
Baltimore Banner reporters Tim Prudente and Emily Opilo contributed to this report.
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