‘Relatively Little’ Damage Caused by Fire at Centre County Recycling and Refuse Authority

A fire at the Centre County Recycling and Refuse Authority’s transfer station on Sunday burned for more than two hours but caused little damage, according to the authority’s executive director.

Alpha Fire Company was dispatched at about 7:10 a.m. to building 3 at the authority, 253 Transfer Road in College Township, after smoke was spotted. CCRRA Executive Director Ted Onufrak said a former authority employee happened to be driving by on his way to work and reported seeing smoke coming from the property.

“Two master streams were immediately put into operation along with heavy machinery to conduct extensive overhaul of the burning materials,” Alpha Fire Company wrote on Facebook.

The fire was brought under control in about two and a half hours.

“It was in our transfer station, which is basically a concrete and steel structure with metal siding,” Onufrak said. “It didn’t hurt our operation, and we’re just lucky that somebody noticed it and made the right call.”

The cause of the fire remains under investigation.

“We had relatively little damage,” Onufrak said. “We’re not sure what caused it, but the big thing now is we’ve been having a lot of the lithium battery fires. Everybody’s been having them that has businesses like this. But we’re not sure that’s what it was or not.”