Water wasn’t going to do the job.
A Tuesday afternoon fire that damaged a building at a State Road scrap business took 90 minutes to extinguish due to its location and the materials involved.
Firefighters responded to Mid-City Scrap Iron & Salvage Co., 548 State Road, around 3:40 p.m. after employees reported smoke coming from a bail of metal in a processing building, the Westport Fire Department said in a news release.
The metal turned out to be titanium, which required specific extinguishing agents or must burn itself out, according to the fire department.
“Adding water to these fires will only make them burn hotter,” Capt. Brian Beaulieu, public information officer for the department, said in the release.
Firefighters had the blaze under control in an hour-and-a-half and remained on scene for an additional hour for overhaul on the structure, which sustained an estimated $200,000 in damage.