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SALT LAKE CITY — Crews worked for more than eight hours to completely douse a fire that started at a green waste dump in Salt Lake City Monday night.
Tuesday morning they continued to dig through ashes, putting out hot spots that threatened to reignite.
The fire started just before 10:30 p.m. in a very dry area near 1790 W. Indiana Ave., at a green waste dump where trees are turned into mulch.
"Crews, before they got here, could see heavy smoke and flames coming from the area. Being an outside fire and the dry conditions that we have, we immediately made this a two-alarm response," said Jasen Asay with the Salt Lake City Fire Department.
He said the fire was in a pit, and there was no wind, which made firefighters' effort a little easier.
"We surrounded it with our apparatus. The main thing now is just spraying water on it and extinguishing it," he said Monday night.
"There is nothing worse than firefighters having to come back and extinguish a fire that they've already extinguished earlier in the evening," he added.
Asay said crews responded with about 35 firefighters because flames were pouring out of the waste pit. They even closed some nearby roads as a precaution. Part of Indiana Avenue remained closed Tuesday morning.
It took crews about four hours to douse the flames.
Asay said it appears the fire started in the area where the waste is actually stored. Lightning was reported in the area but investigators have not determined how the fire started.
