Two Set Fires Extinguished At Abandoned Factory

By Andrew Gorosko

Botsford, Newtown Hook and Ladder, and Sandy Hook firefighters responded to extinguish two smoky fires that someone had set about 5 pm on June 30 inside a graffiti-covered, abandoned factory off Swamp Road in Botsford.

Botsford Fire Chief Richard Brady served as commander at the incident, which attracted dozens of firefighters and multiple fire trucks to the dilapidated, contaminated former Charles Batchelder Company aluminum smelting plant at 44-46 Swamp Road. There were no injuries related to the fires.

Chief Brady supervised as Botsford firefighters set up a portable water tank to supply water to douse the two blazes. Firemen poured an estimated 5,000 gallons of water on the fires to extinguish the burning cardboard and rubbish, which someone had set afire inside the building.

Fire Marshal Bill Halstead said the fires were set in two separate rooms in the sprawling industrial building. One of the fires climbed a wall and ignited the eaves of the building, which has a metal roof. The larger fire burned atop a concrete floor in an area of about 300 square feet.

Because the skylights atop the abandoned building are broken, smoke created by the blazes wafted out through the roof.

There is no damage estimate for the fires because the building they occurred in is considered to be industrial ruins, Mr Halstead said.

Mr Halstead is investigating the origin of the blazes and asks anyone with knowledge of who set the fires to contact him at 270-4370.

Wayne Ciaccia, Botsford’s second assistant fire chief, said putting out the burning pallets of cardboard proved time consuming. The stacks of cardboard, which were banded together, had to be separated to ensure that all fire was out.

The large burning-cardboard fire was under control in about 25 minutes, he said. At times, flames leapt 10 to 12 feet above the factory floor, Mr Ciaccia said.

Over the years, the Batchelder site has been a troublesome location for the town, with recurring reports of loitering, trespassing, and vandalism.

Last December 21, a fire, which was set, extensively damaged the Batchelder factory. Fire officials and police detectives investigated that blaze, but have never made arrests in that case.

At that incident, about 70 firefighters from Botsford, Newtown Hook and Ladder, Sandy Hook, Dodgingtown, and Hawleyville responded. They spent six hours at the abandoned aluminum smelting plant, putting out fires that had ignited in an empty two-story office complex at the factory. That section of the factory was later demolished to prevent it from collapsing.

Last fall, the US Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) earmarked $150,000 in federal funding toward an environmental cleanup of the industrially contaminated Batchelder property.

The town has been working on creating some new use for the site for the past several years. Town officials acknowledge that their marketing of the Batchelder “brownfield,” as such contaminated properties are known, is a tough sell.

Extensive cleanup work would be needed at the vacant 34-acre site before the Batchelder property could be used again. The property contains extensive toxic waste piles and has been abandoned since 1987.

An analysis of the contaminated industrial waste at the site indicates it would cost up to $1.365 million to sufficiently clean the property to make it suitable for some industrial reuse.

In 1997, the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) spent about $300,000 to remove certain forms of toxic waste from the site, including heavy metals and solvents. The EPA fenced off the contaminated site to restrict access.

The site’s cleanup problem is complicated by the bankruptcy protection that Batchelder was granted by US Bankruptcy Court, and by financial claims that have been filed against the company by its creditors.