4-alarm fire guts recycling facility

Two firefighters hurt while tackling blaze on city’s south side

Two firefighters were injured Monday while fighting a fouralarm blaze at a warehouse in south Houston, according to the Houston Fire Department.

They were among 150 firefighters who tackled the fire Monday morning. The blaze, reported at 6:30 a.m. at a recycling warehouse on Almeda near Fuqua, initially sent up plumes of thick black smoke visible from miles away.

The two injured firefighters were taken to the hospital — one with heat exhaustion and one with chemical exposure, spokeswoman Sheldra Brigham said. They are expected to recover.

The fire involved storage materials and a variety of chemicals, prompting the fire department to call a shelter-in-place for people who lived within one mile of the warehouse, said Houston Fire Chief Sam Pena. Authorities lifted the shelter-inplace before noon.

The company housed at the warehouse, National Container Group, cleans large chemical containers for other businesses. Hazmat and decontamination units were on the scene throughout the morning and afternoon.

Firefighters batted down much of the fire by 10 a.m. but had difficulty getting smoke out of the area, Pena said.

“Smoke and the plume aren’t coming up as forcefully and it’s not dissipating as quickly as we’d like,” the chief said.

The blaze began inside and spread outside, and the warehouse has extensive structural damage, Pena said. The cause of the fire is not known at this time.