An early morning fire that burned a large pile of old cars at the Metalico Bradford scrap yard at 286 High St. took several hours to extinguish by firemen with the Bradford City Fire Department. Traffic was blocked from entering High Street from Grove Street to Owens Way for several hours, as well.

No injuries were reported and the fire was extinguished at approximately 11:50 a.m. A Metalico employee referred all questions on the incident to the fire department.

Capt. Jeff Kloss with the fire department said they received a call about the fire at 7:59 a.m. that the yard was on fire.

“We arrived to find a large pile of scrap cars that were on fire,” Kloss said. “We used our tower (truck) and two fire trucks from the city and called in mutual aid from Bradford Township (fire department) to assist us in water supply, but we ended up not needing them.”

He said an ample water supply instead was provided by hydrants on High Street in the vicinity of Metalico. In addition, Bradford Township Fire Department helped with traffic control at Owens Way, while staff with the city’s Department of Public Works controlled traffic at Grove and High streets. Kloss said traffic had to be blocked as the water hoses from the hydrants were on the road along High Street.

“The fire was well off the road and there were no buildings or exposures around it,” Kloss continued. “It was quite a fire and a lot of black smoke.”

He noted that the fire was contained to one big pile of cars and was kept away from a large pile of tires.

“The fire was significant and we were trying to keep it from spreading down that pile,” he said of the stacked cars that were closer to the second High Street entrance to the yard. “The pile was probably 25 feet tall and a couple of hundred feet long.”

Kloss said crane operators with Metalico were a significant help to firefighters.

“They started moving the cars so we could put the fire out,” he remarked. “They also moved the tires … and once we got the fire pretty much knocked down they were moving the rubble around so we could get more water down in there to actually put it out.”

Kloss said there were approximately 13 firefighters on the scene and the cause of the fire remains under investigation.