Ohio Environmental Officials Say Cleanup from 1999 Tire Fire Finished

After nine years and more than $32 million, the clean up of Ohio’s largest tire fire has been completed.

Ohio Environmental Protection Agency spokeswoman Dina Pierce says nothing remains of the millions of scrap tires that once populated the Kirby Tire Recycling dump near the village of Sycamore in Wyandot County.

About 5 million to 7 million of more than 20 million tires stored at the dump burned in the 1999 arson, which went on for five days and was extinguished when the tires were buried under two feet of soil.

Smoke had been visible as far away as Columbus, 70 miles south.

The fire was so big that state legislators doubled the 50 cent fee collected from new tire purchases to help pay for the cleanup.

Source: The Columbus Dispatch.