A gas tank that exploded as it entered the shredder was among several construction material being recycled in a Sun Service warehouse in Beltsville, Maryland. -

A gas tank that exploded as it entered the shredder was among several construction material being recycled in a Sun Service warehouse in Beltsville, Maryland.

Sun Services’ C&D recycling facility in Beltsville, Maryland, was rocked by an explosion on Feb. 5 after a concealed gas tank was accidentally fed into the recycler’s shredder, WTOP News reported.

Sun Services, which specializes in commercial disposal, residential demolition recycling, and construction dumpster rental, has operated since 2004. The firm built its new C&D recycling facility in October 2013.

As the company told Construction & Demolition Recycling magazine in a 2018 profile, Sun Services designed the 28,000-square-foot plant on five acres to house all material loading and processing under one roof to comply with local ordinances. Once material enters the plant, it is weighed prior to being dumped for a LEED inspection. The material is then loaded onto the sort system where it is sized and separated into 2-inch-minus, 2- to 6-inch and 6-inch-plus pieces. Larger pieces comprised of ferrous and nonferrous metal, concrete and aggregate, wood, plastics, cardboard and residuals are then filtered out. The valuable materials are recycled while the residuals head to a local waste-to-energy facility to be processed.

Prince George’s County Fire/EMS teams were called to the scene after the explosion was reported.

Prince George’s County Fire/EMS Department Battalion Chief Daniel Frost told reporters that a medium-sized pressurized gas tank was in with the recycling material fed into the sorting system, which was unknown to workers. Once introduced to the shredder, the tank exploded, setting off a blast that ripped through the building and shook neighboring facilities.

Upon arrival at the scene, fire and EMS crews encountered smoke billowing from the facility and a fire. Siding was blown from the building. According to the Prince George’s County Fire/EMS Twitter account, “While on scene, there was another explosion which preliminarily appears to have come from a recycling unit.”

Fire crews extinguished the fire roughly one hour after the initial blast.

No injuries were reported.

 

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