Cohoes scrap yard open days after fire

Cause not yet determined, says mayor

COHOES, N.Y. » A local scrap yard is open for business days after a large fire consumed a pile of scrap material and damaged a building.

Cohoes Fire Chief Joseph Fahd said that on July 3 at approxi- mately 5:30 p.m. a call came in for a fire at NH Kelman Scrap Recycling.

“It was a pile of metal in front of a building,” he said.

Three firefighters suffered minor injuries. No one else was hurt. The fire was under control after about three hours. Fahd said the scrap pile is believed to have con- tained propane tanks and other fuel containers. There were a number of explosions.

Mayor Shawn Morse said the fire damaged an add- on to one of the facility’s buildings. It will need to be repaired, he said, adding that city engineers met with NHKelman personel after the fire to discuss the rebuilding process.

Morse, who’d been a city firefighter for 27 years, said there have been fires at the Kelman scrap yard before, but nothing on this scale.

“It certainly was a big fire, very hot, very dangerous,” he said.

What caused the fire isn’t clear, however the Department of Environmental Conservation was on scene and will be investigating, Fahd said.

According to Morse, the preliminary investigation has revealed nothing suspicious about the fire.

In addition to fire departments from the local area, firefighters from Albany International Airport were summoned to spray foam on the blaze.

Neighbors were evacuated, but the fire was contained to the scrapyard.

Fahd said firefighters tackled the fire in shifts, owing to the naturally high temperature that day.