3-alarm fire burns at recycling center

Bundles of recycled materials fueled fire

HOUSTON – Investigators are working to determine what caused a three-alarm warehouse fire in northwest Houston.

The fire broke out around 11:30 p.m. Sunday at the Waste Management facility on Campbell near Clay.

When firefighters arrived, they found bundles of recycled materials on fire. Officials said those materials helped the flames spread.

Three alarms had to be called in order to get more than 100 firefighters to the scene to battle the huge blaze.

Firefighters said the recycled materials and how they were positioned made battling the fire difficult. Crews also said there was a strong wind, which made them fear that the flames would spread to another building.

"It was right next to another building that (had) twice as many bales as what was on fire, so we didn't want that and it took us to develop a strong enough water source," HFD spokesman Jay Evans said.

Officials said the fire could smolder for several hours.

No injuries were reported.

"One of our arson investigators was fairly close by, so he was here on scene while we were in the process of fighting the fire," Evans said.

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