CLEVELAND (WJW) Firefighters battled a large industrial fire Monday at a metal recycling facility in Cleveland that housed combustible items, including ammunition.

The first supervisor arriving at the scene quickly realized they would need more help to contain the blaze at River Recycling Industries.

“We upgraded the alarm, made it a triple-two and then made it a triple-three alarm and actually brought in additional companies, in addition to those, so we wound up with over 80 firefighters fighting this fire,” Cleveland Fire spokesperson Lt. Mike Norman said.

River Recycling Industries, which was established in 1919, is an industrial complex that includes a recycling plant, warehouses and a front office.

Investigators said it appears the fire was sparked by a contractor who was grinding metal on a loading dock and accidentally ignited cardboard.

The blaze quickly spread. Fire officials said combustible items stored inside the recycling facility made the job of putting out the flames a dangerous assignment.  

“We had [propane] tanks going off, there were some munitions, they recycle ammunition. We had bullets going off, you know, firing off inside the building. We had a number of explosions. There was a lot of fire when we got here on the scene,” Norman said.

Due to some of the potentially volatile items inside the facility, fire officials used a cautious strategy to contain the flames, and after two and a half hours, declared the fire was under control.

“We had multiple aerial apparatus set up that we used to suppress the fire and get it to a point where we could get hand lines in and put the rest of the fire out,” Norman said.

Firefighters said the rain that moved into the region on Monday afternoon helped cool down the air temperature, but it was not much help putting out the flames inside the buildings.

One of the firefighters was treated for heat exhaustion. None of the employees of River Recycling were injured.

Norman said damage from the fire will be at least $2 million.