A brush pile fire lost containment at the Francestown transfer station on Sunday afternoon. The call came in at 1:44 p.m. just as some Francestown personnel were responding to a house fire in Antrim, Fire Chief Larry Kullgren said on Monday. Transfer station employees intended to burn a pile of residents’ yard debris after the station closed for the day, Kullgren said, but they had anticipated the afternoon rain to start sooner. “It got away from them,” he said, and about a third of an acre burned before Francestown and New Boston personnel could put it out. No structures were damaged, he said.
The recycling barn reopened at the transfer station in “a nod to Earth Day” last week. The facility initially closed to limit the potential for spreading COVID-19 in the enclosed space. There are new rules in place to allow for sufficient physical distancing.
Foot traffic now flows in one direction, with one entrance and one exit. Social distancing boxes are marked in front of each recycling area, and one person is allowed in a box at a time. A maximum of four people are allowed in the building at a time, two recycling and two waiting, and residents are asked to separate recyclables at home to save time. The recycling barn will only stay open if residents can comply with the new rules.