Burning barge in Burbank sends up nasty smoke plume

A barge near the mouth of the Snake River east of Pasco was sending up an ugly black plume of smoke on Tuesday morning.

The barge is docked at the Port of Walla Walla on Grain Terminal Drive in Burbank, just off Highway 12.

According to initial calls to law enforcement around 11:30 a.m., no one was onboard.

Schnitzer Steel, based in Portland, was using the barge to haul junked cars, and other scrap metal, including tin and iron.

When firefighters arrived they reported that they were trying to keep the fire from spreading and they were still at the fire by mid-afternoon Wednesday.

Booms had been placed in the river around the barge on Wednesday afternoon, and a Washington state Department of Ecology spill specialist was en route to Burbank.

The scrapped cars had fuel and oil drained before they were loaded on the barge, said Ty Keltner of Ecology.

With the large amount of water being used to fight the fire, residual oil or fuel could still be swept into the water to be contained by the booms, he said.

This story was originally published September 23, 2020 at 12:13 PM.