A small fire broke out at Clean Harbors yesterday, necessitating an evacuation of the South Arkansas Community College East Campus and a response from the El Dorado Fire Department. Phillip Retallick, Clean Harbors’ senior vice president for compliance and regulatory affairs, said the fire broke out spontaneously. “It was pyrophoric. In other words, it could burn spontaneously in air,” Retallick said. The Clean Harbors plant in El Dorado includes two incineration facilities, where industrial waste can be delivered for destruction. Sometimes that waste has to be transferred to smaller containers more suited for the facility’s kiln; for example, waste delivered in a 55-gallon drum may be transferred to a 30-gallon kiln ready container charge. Retallick said today’s fire happened during a routine repacking. Employees followed their typical process for repacking waste into the kiln ready container charges when one container of waste spontaneously ignited.