About two dozen firefighters continue to fight the fire at Adell Plastics in Baltimore Highlands Wednesday.
The fire started just after 1 p.m. when employees saw an orange glow in the warehouse. Angela Glorioso said as soon as she recognized the building was on fire, she urged her coworkers to get out.
Heroically, she then ran into the neighboring building and told the front office they needed to evacuate, all while she called 9-1-1.
The entire building was covered in thick black smoke as the fire was fed by plastic pellets, what Adell Plastics manufactures, and cardboard. A gas line that took a few hours to get shut off, also fueled the blaze.
Baltimore Highlands fire still burning today. @ABC2NEWS pic.twitter.com/ks0hSuMJ2v
— Cassie Carlisle (@CassieABC2) October 5, 2016
Wednesday, crews tore down walls of the building causing parts of the roof to collapse, trapping the blaze.
"The roof that wasn’t burned down has collapsed down on top of the burning material. It’s a tin roof and now we’re having problems getting water to the base of the fire," Lieutenant Paul Massarelli with Baltimore County Fire said.
Fire licked up from underneath the tin roof, as a group of onlookers watched. A bulldozer continued removing rubble, working to unearth any hot spots.
Smoke was still rising from the fire Wednesday afternoon, concerning neighbors like Rhonda Scally. Scally grew up just down the street from the business and still drives past it often.
About 20 minutes before the fire started Tuesday, she drove past to visit her mother to celebrate her birthday. An alert popped up on her phone, and her daughter texted her telling her what was happening just a couple blocks away.
Concerned, she came outside and saw a huge plume of black smoke.
Black smoke still pouring out of #AdellPlastics. No word on cause of the fire. @ABC2NEWS pic.twitter.com/q9muobtybe
— Cassie Carlisle (@CassieABC2) October 5, 2016
"It was scary because I was worried about the people getting out of there because it looked so bad fast," Scally said.
Now with the employees out of work and the future of the business unclear, Scally says its even more sad.
"A lot of places over the years have closed... and there's still a lot of people who work there, who have lived here their whole life," Scally said.
Another concern she and others in the area share, was if the smoke is toxic.
"We thought if it was something chemical burning, it would smell different, but we didn’t smell anything," Scally said.
Fire officials confirmed that, saying, "the plastic has burned off hot enough to where it’s burning off the hazardous materials that would come out with that," Massarelli said.
Massarelli said there is no cause determined for this fire yet, and that the fire may be completely out Wednesday evening.
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