Fire breaks out at Manitowoc County scrap metal facility

NEWTON, Wis. (WBAY) - Scrap metal caught fire at B&B Metals Processing in Newton Saturday.

Cleveland Assistant Fire Chief Clifford Henning said the fire was reported by employees just after 1 p.m. Upon arrival, Cleveland called in backup.

“We have fire departments from four counties. Manitowoc, Brown, Calumet and Sheboygan...” Henning explained. “In excess of 30 pieces of equipment... and probably 70 firefighters.”

Employees pulled apart the scrap pile to help firefighters extinguish the flames faster.

“This mostly consists of vehicles, appliances and raw scrap material waiting to be processed into a scrap machine that separates the metals from the non-metals,” Henning said. “The fire is 100% contained to the scrap pile outside the building so no structures have been damaged in the process.”

Henning told Action 2 News the biggest challenge crews faced was water. While on scene, reporter Emily Roberts saw firetrucks going in and out of B&B Metals multiple times.

“They carry anywhere between 3,000 and 4,500 gallons of water and they’ve been pretty much running nonstop since we got the call.”

Henning said this isn’t the first time the department responded to the processing facility.

“They do a lot of moving ,metal around and metal-to-metal contact causes frictions. Sometimes flammables inside the pile ignite,” Henning said.

Investigators are still looking into the cause of the fire.

No injuries have been reported.

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