Police: Boat with gas in tank deemed cause of transfer station fire
Ramapo police say they do not suspect any criminality.
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Ramapo police say it appears a boat with gas accidentally left in its fuel tank is the cause of a fire at the Sterling Recycling transfer station in Sloatsburg on Monday.
They learned someone had dropped off the boat to be broken down and disposed of and did not know there was gasoline inside.
They add it appears to be accidental, and they do not suspect any criminality.
The incident happened around Monday at 1:45 p.m.
Police say the transfer station was engulfed in flames when they arrived.
No one was hurt.
“It was fully loaded at the time, so it was probably the worst time that this could have happened,” said Matthew Swanson, chief of the Sloatsburg Fire Department.
Swanson said crews battled the blaze for 13 hours. The large volume of waste debris inside the building made it difficult.
“The biggest challenge was just getting to everything,” Swanson explained. “It was just a lot of digging and pulling it apart and separating it and getting it out.”
Fire departments from across Rockland County assisted in the response, along with firefighters from Mahwah, New Jersey, and Tuxedo in Orange County. Swanson expressed gratitude to the crews that helped bring the fire under control.
The facility sustained significant damage, with the exterior left visibly charred.
The New York State Department of Environmental Conservation says its inspectors visited the Sterling Carting facility on Tuesday.
It says the agency reports no recent violations at the site and that it monitors air quality only when necessary or when local officials request it.
Sterling Recycling declined an interview at this time.
