Fire crews have been fighting a blaze at Evergreen Recycle in Park City for more than two days. During a similar fire in 2022, investigators said part of the challenge was that the owner wasn’t following fire code with the wood piles, and it took nine days to put out. “It’s a challenge. I don’t know that it’s a strain. We’ve got maybe 40% of our resources out here right now,” said Sedgwick County Fire Marshal Brad Crisp. “In 2022 when we were here, we put about 1,500,000 gallons of water on it.” In October of 2022, crews rushed to a similar fire at Evergreen to discover that owner Jeff Ralls wasn’t following fire code, which they say made it even more difficult to control. For example, Crisp says the piles of wood can’t legally be higher than 25 feet, but investigators said they were between 35 and 60 feet high in 2022. Crisp says another violation was the narrow roadways between the piles, which are supposed to be a minimum of 40 feet wide so firefighters have plenty of room to maneuver. Crews ended up battling the fire around the clock for nine days straight. But Crisp says this time, it’s a different story. “The property owners did a lot of work since that last fire to keep the piles smaller, lower, and more spread out,” said Crisp. Crisp says Ralls is now in full compliance.
Source: KAKE – News
