‘Major fire’ closes half of PERC facility

ORRINGTON – A shutdown of half of Penobscot Energy Recovery Co.’s facility after a Sunday night fire should have no effect on plant energy output or garbage intake, officials said Monday.

The fire that lasted nearly five hours tore through a reclaim area where materials are stored before they are filtered and then put through a shredder en route to a burner. The fire burned the reclaim, filter and shredder areas of one of the plant’s two systems, plant controller Gary Stacey said. The total cost of the damage was still being assessed Monday afternoon.

“A lot of times we take one line down for maintenance reasons,” Stacey said. “Our intake and output shouldn’t be affected. The local community shouldn’t see any changes.”

The complex design of the facility hindered the efforts of firefighters from Orrington, Brewer and Bucksport, as well as crews from PERC’s own fire detail, but they were able to contain the fire to the one system.

The fire, which began at around 9 p.m. and was reported to local officials as a “major fire,” is believed to have started near one of the shredders, but officials were not immediately sure Monday how the fire started.

The plant has had numerous fires in the past, but Sunday’s was one of the largest, officials said.

“It was a big fire but it was also in difficult spots to get to,” Orrington fire Lt. Scott Stewart said. “This was definitely one of the largest fires we’ve had to deal with in the past few years, and it wasn’t just in the reclaim area like it normally is.”

Penobscot Energy Recovery Co. converts ordinary, nonhazardous solid waste from residential, commercial and industrial sources into fuel that can be burned alone or with supplemental fuels, such as wood chips, tire chips, natural gas or fuel oil.

This generates electrical power that is sold to Bangor Hydro-Electric Co. under a power purchase agreement signed last year.

Some area residents complained of trouble breathing, saying fumes from the burning garbage were causing their lungs to burn, but officials said that it was unlikely there was any danger to the public.

“Where it’s right next to the river there is most always enough of a breeze to dissipate the smoke and fumes,” Stewart said. “Anyone with lung problems is always at a greater risk of having complications with anything like that.”

Regardless of the amount of damage caused by the fire, there should be no residual effects on prices for the nearly 160 towns and cities in central, northern, Down East and western Maine that belong to the Municipal Review Committee, a large group of Maine communities that negotiates tipping fees with PERC, Stacey said.