Chesterton Tribune

 

 

Dumpster fire behind Dollar Tree Thursday

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Chesterton firefighters doused a blazing dumpster fire behind the new Dollar Tree on Thursday.

Lt. Brandon Smith told the Chesterton Tribune today that the fire presumably had been burning for some time before it was discovered, at 7:50 p.m., because on the CFD’s arrival it was fully involved. “It was cooking for a while,” he said.

The CFD used around 350 gallons of water and another couple of gallons of foam to extinguish the fire, which burned hot enough, long enough, to leave the dumpster warped and ruined, Smith said.

Had the Dollar Tree been constructed of wood instead of masonry, Smith added, it might have gone up too, as the dumpster was located no more than three feet away from the building’s exterior rear wall. “The wall was warm to the touch,” he said.

The cause of the fire was undetermined, and the dumpster had been loaded mostly with cardboard.

The CFD cleared the scene at 8:15 p.m.

For the record, this dumpster fire was the second in less than two months in the Dollar Tree/O’Reilly Auto Parts strip mall just west of the Gelsosomo’s on Indian Boundary Road. On June 1 a fire began in a dumpster behind the second building in the mall, currently unoccupied, just to the west of the Dollar Tree. That dumpster had been loaded with odds and ends: yard waste, lumber, a mattress, a TV. The cause of that fire also remained undetermined.

 

Posted 7/29/2016

 

 
 
 
 

 

 

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