SAVANNAH, Ga. — Fire- fighters battled a giant blaze fueled by 5,600 tons of rubber Saturday at the Port of Savannah, where a column of black smoke could be seen from miles away.
By late Saturday, the fire department said its crews had contained the fire, but it could take a while for the flames to burn out inside a warehouse, which covers 226,000 square feet at the port’s Ocean Terminal west of downtown Savannah.
“It is contained,” Savannah Fire and Emergency Services spokesman Mark Keller said late Saturday, after the fire had burned for at least five hours. “Will it burn all night? There’s no telling. It’s solid blocks of rubber that are burning.”
The cause of the fire wasn’t known, but all port workers were accounted for and unharmed.
Savannah-Chatham County police closed some streets near the port terminal, and smoke slowed traffic on the Talmadge Bridge that spans the Savannah River to South Carolina.
Police also asked a few hotels near the port terminal and the Savannah College of Art and Design, which has buildings in the area, to either evacuate or keep people inside.
“We’re not worried about the fire getting over there at this point,” said police spokesman Julian Miller. “It’s the smoke. It’s going to be heavy, oily and ugly.”
The Port of Savannah is the nation’s fourth-busiest seaport for containerized cargo. The Ocean Terminal handles farm equipment and other heavy machinery.
