ELWOOD — When firefighters arrived at the burning Plastech plant on Monday, it was clear immediately that mutual aid would be needed, according to Elwood Fire Department Lt. Shawn Loar.

Aid arrived in the form of 14 neighboring departments who arrived on scene after the police-scanner tones dropped in scale, providing additional equipment and, more importantly, additional manpower to battle the blaze.

According to Pipe Creek Battalion Chief Myron Watson, those departments included Pipe Creek Township, Duck Creek Township, Frankton, Richland Township, Tipton, Ingalls, Alexandria, Pendleton, Chesterfield, Madison Township (Tipton County), Fishers and White River Township (Hamilton County) fire departments.

Nearly 25 water tankers were brought in from neighboring cities as firefighters struggled to battle the blaze without limiting the Elwood water supply, according to Todd Harmeson of the Madison County Emergency Management Agency. “When you draw that much water, the rest of the town still needs water.”

In addition to tanker trucks, aerial trucks from Elwood, Tipton and Anderson were on site to help fight the fire from above.

Though the proper equipment and manpower were provided, firefighters had difficulty getting to the source of the fire.

The fire was contained to the eight paint booths where the flames originated but firefighters were unable to hit the fire with a hose directly at first, due to excessive heat, Loar said. “It was pretty much almost impossible to get to. We made an entry and the heat was so bad, we had to back out.”

Loar said firefighters would’ve been forced to enter each paint booth room in order to battle the blaze. The heat, he said, was melting metal rafters within the plant, and causing the roof to bow. The threat of a roof collapse, he said, was a main concern for the four firefighters fighting the blaze from inside the plant. “It bowed quite a bit but never did fully collapse,” Loar said.

Firefighters were left with no option but to contain the fire, allowing it to burn. “It pretty much burnt itself out to where when we went in again, we pretty much just hit the hot spots.”

Despite the intense heat and numerous hazardous chemicals burned in the fire, no one was injured in the blaze.