Tire Fire - Notable Tire Fires

Notable Tire Fires

Some notable tire fires include:

• 1983 – Seven million tires burn in Winchester, Virginia for nine months, polluting nearby areas with lead and arsenic. The location was cleaned up as a Superfund project from 1983 to 2002.
• 1984 – A pile estimated at four million tires, known locally as Mount Firestone, ignited in Everett, Washington and burned for months as the fire department was unable to extinguish it.

• 1989 – In Heyope (near Knighton, Powys, Wales) a fire involved approximately 10 million tires burnt for at least 15 years.
• 1990 – In Hagersville, Ontario, a fire started in a 12 to 14 million tire pile. It burned for 17 days and nearly forced 4,000 people to evacuate.
• 1996 – An Arson fire in March at an illegal tire yard underneath a section of I-95 in Philadelphia caused $6 million in damage and completely closed section of highway for weeks and partial closures for 6 months.
• 1998 – A grass fire ignited the 7 million tires at the unlicensed S.F. Royster Tire Disposal Facility in Tracy, California. It was extinguished, after 26 months, with water and foam in December, 2000.
• 1999 – On August 21, arsonists ignited the former Kirby Tire Recycling facility, containing an estimate 25 million tires located on 110 acres (0.45 km2) near Sycamore, Ohio. The fire burned for 30 hours, involved over 250 firefighters, the Ohio National Guard and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and caused significant environmental damage. The fire was controlled and finally extinguished in part by covering it with dirt. In the intervening years the EPA has performed a massive clean up effort on the site.
• 1999 – Lightning struck a tire dump in Westley, California, which burned for 30 days. Pyrolitic oil flowed into a nearby stream and also ignited.
• 2012 – On January 27, 2012, a massive tire fire sparked at a tire recycling plant in Lockport,N.Y. causing dangerous amounts of soot and smoke to burn over the city for over 22 hours, causing serious damage to many homes.
• 2012 – In Jahra, Kuwait a five million tire fire erupted on April 16, 2012. The fire was thought to be started deliberately by scrap metal hawkers looking to recover scrap metal.
• 2012 – In Iowa City, Iowa, at approximately 6:45 p.m. on Saturday, May 26th, 2012, a fire started in the ground tire bedding material at the Iowa City Landfill, involving at least 7.5 acres of landfill. It was finally extinguished on June 12th after a "stir, burn and cover" operation.
• 2012 – Tire fire protests erupted all over Lebanon. Protesters used burning tires to cut off main roads in Lebanon.