Foam Operations Knock Down 100-Foot Tire Fire: Fleming Firefighters Respond to Silver Street Road

Auburn, NY — Firefighters deployed specialized firefighting foam Saturday morning to knock down a heavy outdoor fire involving a massive pile of burning tires contained within a concrete pit.

At approximately 10:10 a.m. (1010 hours) on August 22, the Fleming Fire Department Co. No. 1 in Cayuga County was dispatched to an address on Silver Street Road for initial reports of a vehicle fire threatening a nearby barn.

Fleming Ambulance 1 Car 1 arrived on scene first and provided an updated size-up, discovering that the incident was not a vehicle blaze, but rather an active fire burning through an estimated 100-foot by 50-foot pile of tires situated inside a concrete pit.

Fleming units responded in force, deploying Chief Cars 5 and 4, Engine 3, Engine 4, Tanker Pumper 2, and Truck 1. Recognizing the intensive heat and persistent petroleum-based fuels involved in tire fires, suppression crews established dedicated foam lines to smother the flames and cool the burning rubber mass.

To support the high water volume needed for extended suppression and cooling operations, mutual aid tankers from the Owasco Fire Department and Scipio Fire Department were called to the scene to establish a sustained rural water supply shuttle, successfully bringing the fire under control without extension to adjacent agricultural buildings.