Cause, origin of last week's Waste Management recyclables blaze 'undetermined'

Rochester Fire crews battle a recyclables blaze at Waste Management early Friday morning. (Rochester Fire photo)

ROCHESTER - The cause of Friday's fire inside a building that houses Waste Management's recyclables was found to be undetermined following an investigation by Rochester Fire.
The blaze at Waste Management Building 8 at 479 Steele Road was called in by a Waste Management employee. He told firefighters he punched in around 4:46 a.m. and thought he was seeing fog around the recyclables building so he walked over to it to check it out. According to an investigative report filed by Rochester Fire and obtained by The Rochester Voice, when he opened the door he was confronted by thick smoke and a "significant" fire.
He then walked back down Steele Road and met the first contingent of Rochester firefighters who were responding to the scene.
According to a report filed by Deputy Chief Adam Hughes, the point of origin appeared to be "located near the bay door closest to the office area about midway up the hall."
"Smoke patterns on the windows clearly showed the direction of travel and showed signs of water spattering closest to the point of origin indicating that a sprinkler head may have activated in that area."
Fire officials than discovered that a cistern that held water for the sprinkler system was empty, and that a central alarm had left a message with security company (Securitas) around 3:05 a.m. that there was "trouble and supervisory fire pump activation."
The two-story noncombustable building that housed the recyclables had a "heavy presence" of thick smoke, according to an incident report from Fire Capt. Steven Plante.
With the water depleted at the recyclable facility, firefighters used a portable tank off Tanker 7 while shuttling water using tank trucks. The operation continued for about two hours until all smoking material was out of the building, most of it removed by a front-end loader.
The recyclable materials included bottles, barrels, cardboard, plastic and rubbish, according to the report.
The official spot of origin and heat source were also found to be undetermined.