Spontaneous combustion blamed for Park City recycling center fire; damage estimate is $1M

Authorities said Wednesday that a fire that burned for a week at a Sedgwick County pallet recycling center, causing at least $1 million in damage, ignited spontaneously.

Sedgwick County firefighters left the fire scene at Evergreen Recycling Center “for good” on Tuesday, after more than seven days, the county said in a news release.

“Fire investigators spoke with dozens of people and watched hours of closed caption video to determine the fire started at the southeast corner of the most northern pile of wood debris” at the facility, 300 W. 53rd St. North in Park City, the release said.

“The only cause that could not be ruled out was spontaneous ignition, which occurs when low ignition temperature materials (like wood, wood chips and mulch) self-heat and auto-ignite,” the release continued.

“The owner and employees of Evergreen Recycling played a critical role in helping to control the fire and its eventual extinguishment.”

The fire was reported shortly before 6 p.m. on Oct. 30 in piles of mulch and wood that was in some places more than 30 to 40 feet deep, Sedgwick County Fire Chief Douglas Williams said previously. The fire’s width was more than a quarter mile, covering around 10 acres of the recycling facility’s grounds, he has said.

Sedgwick County Fire District 1 estimated the fire loss at $1 million in raw wood products, the release said. There were no injuries or damage to buildings or vehicles reported.

The fire district is still determining the cost of putting out the blaze, which included round-the-clock monitoring and more than a million gallons of water.

Sedgwick County Fire District 1’s fire prevention division plans to work with the recycling center “in making modifications to combustible material pile sizes, firebreaks, water supply and other preventive measures that will help prevent or more quickly mitigate any future fire event,” according to the county’s news release.