A Look Back: The Fire at Decco Alloys

Editor's Note: We compiled multiple stories from our coverage of the fire and put them all in one for comprehensive coverage.

Only one person suffered a minor injury during a major fire that broke out on Sept. 21 at on Midway Drive, according to the

“We had one person who was slightly injured,” said Lynn Racine, the fire department's public information officer at the blaze. “He was assessed at the scene and he signed off and did not want a transport.”

Captain Don Simon said crews were battling the fire from the inside when the roof began to collapse and they were forced to pull out.

“It’s all metals, and if anyone knows anything about metals: Dust, aluminum, magnesium; once it gets going, it’s hard to put it out,” said Simon.

One of the first people on the scene around 11:40 a.m., Fire Chief Richard Racine said he talked to the superintendent of the scrap metal plant, who believed it was copper dust that ignited as it was removed from a 50 gallon drum. Racine said employees tried to put it out before calling 911, but it burned too fast and they evacuated the plant.

“It was a quick-spreading fire,” Racine said. “It’s a very congested facility because of the type of work they do, so it was very easy for it to spread quickly. And it did.”

As firefighters were battling the blaze in the building, Racine saw a wall was starting to crack and pulled his men out. He said 10 minutes later, part of the roof came down where they had been standing.

Once the roof started to collapse, it covered up most of the area that was burning, making it difficult for crews to reach the flames from the ladder trucks.

“It’s basically like squirting water on an umbrella,” Racine said. “The collapsed roof was preventing the water from penetrating it.”

It took them almost three hours to drown out the flames, aided by a heavy downpour from a passing storm, allowing firefighters to get inside and put out the bigger part of the fire.

“It will probably smolder for a couple of days until that company can get some heavy equipment in there to lift the collapsed roof section and put the rest of it out,” Racine said.

Twinsburg Fire was on three separate calls when the fire started, but fortunately they were all finished and able to respond to Decco Alloys. Racine said he is still finalizing the numbers, but at least 10 other communities, with close to 45 firefighters, to help extinguish the fire.

Racine said the building suffered major structural damage and believes it will be a total loss.

“Right now, until I’m told otherwise, based on my experience and what I saw being out there myself all day, that building’s most likely going to get torn down,” he said.

While part of the building was unaffected by the fire, Racine said Decco will likely face two choices: Tear down the section where the roof collapsed and rebuild, or tear the entire building down.

“You can certainly still smell the odor, which will last there until they can clean all that out,” Racine said. “But the active burning for the most part is done.”

The good news is the plant has been able to stay in business. Racine has seen several trucks coming in with scrap metal over the past few days and a generator was brought in to power the still-usable part of the structure.

Power was cut to both businesses next to Decco Alloys as a precaution.