GLENDALE, Ariz. — Large cleanup efforts are set to begin after a massive fire burned an entire city block in Glendale.
The fire destroyed multiple businesses near 62nd and Myrtle Avenues, including plastic and vegetable oil recycling yards.
"Looking at things today, it's total destruction," Chris Harris, a witness who lives nearby, said.
Glendale Fire Department Capt. Kyle Borg said firefighters responded to an unknown fire around 6 p.m. on Saturday.
Crews found a tanker on fire and upgraded the response to second-alarm hazmat.
“We had several 275-gallon totes of vegetable oil in addition to what you can see are several tankers full of vegetable oil," Borg said.
Multiple agencies responded with little to no experience in fighting a fire fueled by vegetable oil.
“We don’t train for that, right. That’s something, an anomaly, a one-off," Borg said.
Borg said there were a limited number of fire hydrants nearby, but the city was able to increase water flow to the area.
MORE INFORMATION: Grand Avenue in Glendale reopens after massive fire at recycling plant
"That was initially a problem, was getting enough water to treat that volume of fire," Borg said.
He said it was impressive that crews were able to keep the fire from spreading beyond the block.
"Keeping this fire to this block is a testament to the automatic aid system that we work in," Borg said.
Officials don't know which part of the tanker sparked the explosion.
“We don’t know whether it was something mechanical or something as far as spontaneous combustion of the vegetable oil. So, our investigation really didn’t give us much in that because everything was burned up," Borg said.
As runoff water infiltrated with the cooking oil spills into nearby streets, some people said they're concerned with what it means for the water and air.
"These kinds of things, you need to be very safe with," Harris said.
Borg said there are no major concerns for long-term environmental impacts.
"We brought multiple hazmat teams out last night. We didn’t get any kind of readings that we were concerned about," Borg said.
The fire department will work with business owners to get an environmental clean-up contractor to the site for more testing.
The Glendale Streets Maintenance Services will clean the roads, according to Borg.
Up to Speed
Catch up on the latest news and stories on the 12News YouTube channel. Subscribe today.