LITTLE ROCK, Ark — 24 hours after a fire engulfed Goldman's Recycling, Little Rock fire crews were working around the clock to smolder what's left of the now damaged structure.
They used a tractor on the ground to pick up debris to see if there were any hotspots amongst the rubble. Capt. Jacob Lear-Sadowsky used three aerial firetrucks to target hot spots amongst the rubble of debris.
"Imagine a bail of hay. A lot of the product that they had over there was in large bails. If there's a fire in the bail of hay and it's in the middle of it: they have to expose that. So the large equipment is kind of breaking that stuff a part exposing hot spots and putting water on it," said Lear-Sadowsky.
The Tuesday evening fire affected neighboring businesses which resulted in power outages. Alongside fire crews, Entergy was out to restore power and air quality control.
Brandy Hinkle with Entergy said a mix of 76 businesses and residential customers were impacted by the effects the fire had on the distribution lines.
"We had some that were out about 5:30 this morning, which is when the fire department gave us lead to go ahead and safely restore power, and all of them have restored since about 1:30 this afternoon," said Hinkle.
They had to first de-energize some of the lines in the areas, because of the amount of water that firefighters were using.
The huge plume of black smoke that filled the air was another concern.
In a statement, Arkansas Energy and Environment said they're monitoring the area and coordinating with the Department of Health to further assess any data collected from the site.
Representatives from E&E coordinated with Little Rock Fire, Little Rock HAZMAT, Pulaski County OEM, municipal authorities, and the facility representatives to assess immediate threats to public health and the environment and determine appropriate environmental response actions.
Environmental consultants were dispatched to provide continuous fixed and mobile air monitoring within the vicinity of the incident and to mitigate possible water pollutants or contaminants discharged during firefighting activities.
There's no current timeline for when things will be under control, but only one aerial fire truck was left to monitor the debris by the evening.
"The crew that's on duty now, we're here until 7 a.m. tomorrow, so we're going to be here as long as we need to be here to get the fire out," said Capt. Lear-Sadowsky.
He said more crews will be out Thursday.