Cleaning up after the fire on Abeel Street in Kingston on Monday night. (Photo by Rokosz Most)
A debris fire broke out at West Kingston Recycling next to the Rondout Creek some time around 12:30 a.m. early Tuesday morning. Police cordoned off the stretch of Abeel Street and were turning away drivers on Route 213 just west of the Wilbur section of Kingston.
Lieutenant Alan Stokes of the Kingston Fire Department confirmed that several fire trucks and an excavator were on the scene.
A foul chemical odor like burnt rubber hung thick in the air for miles from the blaze.
Kingston fire chief Chris Rea says this is only the second fire at this location the fire department has responded to in the last five years, though junkyard fires are not uncommon. “In the Eighties and Nineties, for sure,” said Rea. “Out in the East Strand when Millens Recycling was still there. A lot of junk-car fires.”
No victims have been reported. The cause of the blaze remains undetermined at this time.