United States (Pennsylvania) - A black smoke plume billowed eastward across Greater Hazleton as dozens of firefighters from three counties raced to a massive tire fire near a salvage yard off state Route 309 in Hazle Township on Monday evening. At 7:12 p.m., Luzerne County 911 received a call regarding the fire near Hazle Auto Parts at 864 S. Church St. Within minutes, the county emergency center had received numerous phone calls reporting the fire, which could be seen for miles.

Luzerne County Emergency Management Agency Director Steve Bekanich estimated 5,000 tires were on fire at the salvage yard. No injuries were reported as of 10 p.m., when most of the fire had been knocked down, Bekanich said. Crews were expected to remain at the scene for another three hours, prodding through smoldering debris at the salvage site that houses more than 30,000 tires.

Hazleton Fire Department Deputy Chief Brian Mandak said Hazleton's fire department was dispatched around 7 p.m. to a blaze behind a salt shed near state Route 924. Upon realizing the fire was actually in Hazle Township, city firefighters called 911 to dispatch the Hazle Township Fire Department.

A Pennsylvania State Police helicopter assisted in pinpointing the fire's location, which is in a sprawling former mining area.

At least two sites -- one on Route 309 near Arthur Gardner Parkway and another in the Butler Industrial Park on Conahan Drive -- were set up to fill water tanker trucks. Throughout Monday night, Mandak was assisting at the Butler Industrial Park fill site, where Hazleton firefighters helped fill tanker after urgent tanker. A Mahanoy City truck was filled, and sped off about 10 minutes later. Soon, another fire truck was on its way to the fill site.

Emergency personnel from Luzerne, Schuylkill and Carbon counties used an entrance road near Hazle Auto Parts to reach the fire. Dozens of water tanker trucks repeated their trips through the semi-paved road to haul hundreds of gallons to the blaze.

Because of the way a pile of tires burns, maintaining a steady flow of water was crucial to fighting the fire, Mandak said.

Karen Kaschak was watching a tanker shuttle from across Conahan Drive with her five children while her husband helped fill the incoming trucks.

"It's scary. It's very scary. You know you've got coal veins around here. We've heard reports of 1,000 tires on fire. Are you familiar with Centralia?" she said. "As soon as you hear about a major fire, you think of Centralia."

At the fill site off of Route 309, McAdoo firefighters helped fill trucks from the multiple companies that responded to the fire.

Road flares were set up on state Route 309 on the entrance road and fire police directed traffic. Luzerne County EMA and Public Safety vehicles pulled up to the scene.

The plume billowed eastward toward the Hazleton Heights, and then south toward McAdoo. It appeared to weaken, becoming more transparent as the sun set around 9 p.m.

Onlookers driving by pulled over to witness the spectacle. Fire police fought to control southbound traffic, so northbound tankers could access the entrance road from Route 309.

Twenty fire departments and emergency companies rushed to the fire, a supervisor from Luzerne County 911 said. The departments include Hazleton, Harwood, Tresckow, Rush Township, Sugarloaf, West Hazleton, Valley Regional, Hometown, Nuremberg-Weston, Sheppton-Oneida, Foster Township, Ryan Township, Mahony City and McAdoo. Hazle Township was the lead department responding. Ambulances were also on scene.

A group of people who said they were friends of the owner of Hazle Auto Parts kept guard at the businesses gate, preventing the media from entering.

According to Bekanich, Luzerne County emergency management teams were checking the air quality in the affected areas. Residents in the path of the smoke were asked to close their windows, and residents who were experiencing difficulty breathing were asked to call 911.

Written by Standard-Speaker