A stubbornly smoldering wood chip fire caused by spontaneous combustion, which burned for the better part of a week at the town landfill at Ethan Allen Road, was finally put out, after a large pile of wood residue that had caught fire was physically separated into smaller piles by the town.

Botsford Fire Rescue volunteer firefighters repeatedly responded to the scene to extinguish the nuisance fire, which reignited time and again, after initially becoming apparent on October 30. Between that date and November 3, Botsford firefighters went to the landfill seven times to put out the burning wood chips. There were no injuries due to the recurring fire.

Wood chips, among other wooden waste such as cut brush, tree limbs, and stumps, are dumped at a "brush pile" at the landfill. Under certain weather conditions, the stored decaying wooden waste spontaneously catches fire due to a buildup of heat within the wood pile.

On Monday, November 7, Botsford Fire Chief Wayne Ciaccia said of the recurring fire, "It appears to be out." Although the town had repeatedly taken steps to prevent the fire from restarting by digging down into the brush pile to get to the source of the combustion, the fire repeatedly reflared, he said.

The first time firefighters went to the fire, they poured 10,000 gallons of water in seeking to put it out, Chief Ciaccia said. During successive trips, they put 500 gallons of water on the pile, he added.

"We were busy," Chief Ciaccia said.

The situation amounted to a "nuisance fire," which generated much white smoke, similar to a heavy fog, he said.

Fred Hurley, town public works director, said the recurring fire affected an area measuring about 20 feet by 30 feet. Getting the fire out required using earthmoving equipment to dig down about 25 feet into the brush pile to get to the area where the wood chips were reigniting due to spontaneous combustion, he said.

The wooden matter removed from the big pile was placed in smaller piles to keep the rotting substance from reigniting, he said.

The recurring fire that became apparent on October 30 was minor compared to a wood chip fire that occurred at the landfill in April 2012.

That fire was whipped by high winds into a significant blaze early on the morning of Monday, April 9, 2012. When volunteer firefighters from five local companies arrived at the scene about 12:15 am, they found a huge orange glowing wood chip pile emitting flames and thick white smoke. The high winds pushed the fire the across a grassy area east of the wood chip pile in the direction of houses on River Run and Turkey Hill Road, but firefighters were able to stop the blaze from spreading to the houses.

The huge mass of wood chips that burned in that 2012 incident contained the shredded remains of the local brush that was damaged by Winter Storm Alfred in October 2011, and Tropical Storm Irene in August 2011.

The town's waste facility at Ethan Allen Road is a waste transfer station from which household waste is transshipped out of town for disposal. What formerly was an active landfill there was long ago closed and capped to isolate it from the environment.