Camden Fire Department - 1017 Penn Street

This page and the other pages in this series are the successors to the series of web-page about the Camden Fire Department called Camden Fire Department: The Fires of the Summer of 2011. On this and other pages in the series you will find pictures and information regarding different events and aspects of the fire service in Camden, New Jersey.

At 11:14 AM on October 16, 2011 a large mulch fire was reported at the composting facility of Riverfront Recycling and Aggregate, 1301 North 26th Street in Cramer Hill. Riverfront Recycling operates on a large piece of property on the west side of Harrison Avenue between North 25th Street and North 27th Street. Their Class B recycling facility accepts stumps, brush, pallets, dirt, concrete, and pavers to be recycled into useable products such as dyed mulch, screened soil, fill, and I-5 (crushed concrete).

An ongoing problem when one is converting organic material into mulch is that of spontaneous combustions. As organic material decomposes it generates heat, and this heat can lead to spontaneous combustion. In the nearby Harrison Avenue dump, similar fires have been occurring for decades as buried organic material has been emitting combustible methane gas.

Fire Dispatcher Matt DeGailler rendered the following account of the incident. The Camden Fire Department initially responded on this occasion with Engine Company 11 being dispatched. Engine 11 arrived and confirmed the report of a mulch fire. Engine 9, Tower Ladder 3, and Battalion 1 were then special called. It took quit some time to put this fire out completely. All units became available at 1:04 PM.

The photos below are presented in the order in which they were taken. As with the web page covering other Camden Fire Department events, if you can identify anyone that I've missed, please e-mail me. (I'm terrible at names and faces).

Phil Cohen
October 27, 2011