Nearly 15 different fire departments from as far as Merrill and Kronenwetter were called to TerX Recycling, after employees reporter seeing smoke in the building.
Crews were first called to TerX at 5:30 AM on the morning of Tuesday, March 26 to battle the flames. Jim Sonnentag lives right across the street from the plant, and says his morning got off to a frantic start.
Sonnentag said, "All I seen was a bunch of lights flashing at six o'clock when I got up, and smoke rolling out of the big building. And then I left at 7:00 and everything was lights here. Ambulances, trucks, police were here."
Maine Fire Chief Joe Bozinski says that most of the damage was done to the roof of the building, but thanks to a little teamwork, the fire was contained.
Bozinski said, "We feel that we've got a good knock down. We've got one spot that we're concerned with yet, that we're working on to gain safe access to."
He said that thankfully, no one was injured, and that his department was thankful for the help they got, saying, "We'd just like to thank all the volunteer fire departments and the full-timers that came to our aid, and no injuries, we're glad to report that."
Bozinski said that the biggest issue crews faced, was getting enough water. He said, "We had to go into the City of Wausau to connect to their hydrants. We're limited with our water capacity here in the Brokaw area due to the tower not being totally full."
Bozinski added that it was the third time they have been called to TerX, but this fire was the biggest of the three.
The cause of the fire has not yet been determined.
