Firefighters from around the Billings metropolitan area raced to Coulson Rd. in Lockwood on Monday November 4th as they responded to a report of a fire at Pacific Steel and Recycling. The fire was reportedly caused by hot metal traveling down a conveyor belt into an area where flammable liquids were exposed. While one person was injured in the fire, the injury was minimal and did not warrant hospitalization.
Lockwood Fire, Billings Fire, Shepherd Fire, Laurel Fire, and a water tender from the airport all responded to combat the blaze. Lockwood Fire Chief John Staley said that without the help from all of the responding fire departments the fire would have been a much larger issue, saying, “It took all the resources that I mentioned, Laurel, Billings, we have other units like Worden who is covering for Shepherd and other people are covering for them just so we can do this. So without them, yeah we’re kind of waving at it saying ‘ain’t that a big fire.’” By the time the blaze was vanquished, over a million dollars worth of damage had been done to Pacific Steel.
Even with the fire damage, branch manager Jason Heath says they are still open for business and are still accepting recycling materials the same as before, although their aluminum shredder sustained heavy damage. “We did everything we are supposed to. The fire departments were incredible. Their response time was great.” Heath said, “They had lots of tenders and rigs out here so they did the best they could for us as well.”
