Fifty volunteers from a half-dozen Schoharie and Otsego County fire departments spent Monday afternoon battling a stubborn fire at REMCO Plastics in Richmondville.
A neighbor called in the alarm, reporting smoke and flames, shortly after noon firefighters said.
REMCO is located on Creamery Street, off Mill Street and near both the Richmondville Cemetery and the Little League field; both roads are dead ends, which hindered access to the small plastics manufacturing plant.
REMCO is owned and operated by Paul Maurice, a subcontractor who manufactures and molds small products.
Firefighters said it’s unclear how the fire started, but that Mr. Maurice had already left for lunch when the call came in and there were no injuries reported.
Smoke from the fire was visible from I-88 and firefighters said they were initially concerned about potentially toxic chemicals stored inside the concrete building, which sits tucked up against a hill.
The concrete also made getting at the fire difficult, firefighters said, and because they weren’t able to drill holes for ventilation, it took nearly two hours to get it knocked down.
Volunteers were able to keep the fire from reaching the chemicals, however, the fire destroyed Mr. Maurice’s main office, most of his shipping materials, and badly damaged three motorcycles he’s also been storing in the building.”
Initially, firefighters attacked the fire from inside, but they were called out of the building after one of the floors became unstable.
Volunteers were on the scene till about 6pm.
Crews responded to the scene with manpower and equipment or stood in for other departments from Richmondville, Cobleskill, Summit, Jefferson, Worcester, East Worcester, Carlisle, and Central Bridge.
The Scoharie County FAST Team and fire coordinators and State Fire investigators were also at the scene.