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Crews Battle 3-Alarm Fire At Dundalk Paper Recycling Plant

DUNDALK, Md. (WJZ) -- A raging three-alarm fire destroys a paper warehouse in Dundalk. Baltimore County crews are still working to get the flames under control.

Christie Ileto has more.

Raging flames and black, billowing smoke rip through the 1900 block of Graves Court in Dundalk. The Owl Corporation, a paper recycling plant, is an inferno Friday night.

"The roof is near collapse, the walls are near collapse because of the heat that is being generated in the building," said Lt. Paul Massarelli, Baltimore County Fire Department. "So we've evacuated everyone from the sides of the building."

Crews spend hours battling the three alarm fire that started at 6:30 p.m.

"I looked out the front door, I live not too far from here, and you could see the black smoke," James Morrison said.

Residents and employees from the plant watch from side streets as the old warehouse full of paper burns.

"Scary. It was really scary when I saw it," Heather Morrison said.

Martin State Airport firefighters brought in water tankers to help the flames.

The Baltimore County Fire Department says one of the problems they're dealing with is that most of the fire hydrants in the area are connected to the same grid. That means, when they hook up to one fire hydrant, another hydrant in the area loses pressure.

"We're trying to get in the best we can through openings to put water on the fire," Massarelli said. "Once we get it knocked down a little bit and we can determine the building is safe, we might be able to get back inside."

To extinguish the flames, so investigators can find out how this started.

Officials say no one was inside the building at the time the fire started. No injuries have been reported.

The cause of the fire remains under investigation.

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