LACKAWANNA, NY--
It's been exactly one year since this massive fire started at the old Bethlehem Steel site in Lackawanna.
It took days for crews to put out the flames.
All the debris and smoke in the air forced some people who live nearby to leave their homes for several days.
Earlier this fall -- we got our hands on an incident report from the fire... and the cause was still listed as "undetermined".
For the residents of Bethlehem park... the big concern isn't on what happened... but what "will" happen with the long-term effects of the exposure to the smoke and chemicals.
"I think the fear is really for the unknown. For the future, what we're breathing, how long we're going to be breathing it, what they're going to do to resolve it," says Julie Redden, A Lincoln Avenue resident.
That is the big concern that lingers a year after the fire... what will they find out in the future -- as far as what was in that smoke... and what effect will that have on vegetation... water... and of course -- the health of people who live there.
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Light Bulb Sparked Massive Blaze at Former NY Steel Plant Nov 9, 2016 Source: Firehouse.com News
Photo credit: Clayton Kummer
A hot light bulb is blamed for sparking a massive fire that ripped through several buildings at the former Bethlehem Steel plant in Lackawanna Wednesday morning.
The fire was reported around 7 a.m.
The fire started when the light bulb full onto a pile of combustibles, Fred K. Heinle, director of development for Lackawanna, told the Buffalo News. The building is now used for storing boat and cars.
Flames spread through three buildings, which take up about six city blocks.
Nearby residents were told to shelter in place and burning debris was reportedly falling several miles away.
Residents told the newspaper that they heard several explosions before the roof collapsed.
Buffalo Fire Commissioner Garnell W. Whitfield Jr. told the newspaper that most of the building collapsed.
Over 100 firefighters responded to the blaze, including a hazmat team from the Buffalo Fire Department.
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Cause of massive Lackawanna fire 'undetermined,' investigators say
By Mark Wozniak • Sep 22, 2017
Ten months worth of investigation into the massive Bethlehem Steel site fire in Lackawanna last November has resulted in an undetermined cause.
Credit WBFO's Avery Schneider
James Otwell, Chief of the Buffalo Fire Investigation Unit, said investigators were unable to detect what started the November 7, 2016 fire, which lasted four days and disrupted area resident and commuter routines.
Otwell said he is highly certain the fire was caused by a broken light bulb as originally reported by authorities. However, no one saw it happen, so it cannot be definitively ruled as the cause of the fire.
Credit WBFO's Avery Schneider
The building on fire was owned by Great Lakes Industrial Development, located in the Steel Works Industrial Park on the former Bethlehem Steel site on Route 5 in Lackawanna. It damaged space occupied by Industrial Materials Recycling, a post-industrial plastics recycler, which grinds discarded plastic products into granular plastic that is sold to manufacturers where the material is recycled into the manufacturing process.
Some 300 homes in Lackawanna's Bethlehem Park neighborhood were evacuated the night of November 10 because of hazardous air quality from the fire. The blaze also affected nearly 20 businesses.
More than 100 firefighters from multiple area fire stations rotated on duty. Federal, state and local agencies, including the ATF, EPA and DEC also assisted.