Firefighters were called to a fire at the Resource Recovery Facility on December 8. The facility is located at 21204 Martinsburg Road in Dickerson. The fire began on the tipping floor, which is the area where trucks drive in to dump waste. Firefighters remained on site monitoring the fire through December 19.
The Montgomery County Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) remained on the scene throughout the incident. DEP installed air portable monitors in four locations to measure both particulates and toxics and conducted water sampling from the discharge pond.
The Office of Emergency Management used the Alert Montgomery and land-line notification systems to update residents about the fire. The fire did not impact single-family residential curbside trash pick-up, however, commercial customers were temporarily diverted to other facilities.