HENRY, Tenn. — The plume could be seen from as far away as Nashville Friday afternoon, May 8, as flames consumed the Sigma Renew 360 facility on Mark I Drive in Henry.
According to Henry Police Chief Ricky Wade, employees were burning pallets outside that morning — a common practice. The wind kicked up, and the fire spread to the building.
“Once the building caught, that was it,” said one witness at the scene, helping to direct traffic. “They don’t have a sprinkler system inside.”
Sigma Renew 360, part of Sigma Plastics Group, operates a 112,000-square-foot facility on 14 acres dedicated to reprocessing polyethylene film scraps. The Henry location stored and prepped recycled materials destined for further processing at one of the company’s many other locations nationwide.
All eight employees on site were evacuated. No injuries were reported. Two firefighters were treated for heat exhaustion.
All three buildings at the facility compound were declared a total loss.
The burning plastic created a thick, black plume of smoke that jetted upward. High winds carried it northward toward Paris and beyond. Weather radars even picked up the smoke at the height of the blaze, registering it as a band of precipitation.
Henry County EMA issued a shelter-in-place warning for nearby residents and asked people with breathing problems to stay inside and away from the area. Officials warned that smoke would continue to cause air quality issues for approximately 24 hours, particularly for those with asthma, COPD, or heart conditions.
Throughout the day Friday, through the night, and well into Saturday, more than 20 out-of-county agencies provided aid in the form of manpower, pumper trucks, ladder trucks, and tankers, including the Milan Fire Department, Dresden Fire Department, and Madison County Fire Department, among others.
Huntingdon Fire Department sent their ladder truck, as well as Carroll County Fire Department. A number of Carroll County stations participated in the firefighting effort, including Mixie, Clarksburg, Macedonia, and others. McKenzie Fire Department deployed manpower and equipment as well.
Carroll County EMA Director, Trevor Foster, spent much of Friday afternoon and evening coordinating fire equipment on scene.
With the fire completely overtaking the buildings, fueled by many tons of plastics, the bulk of the effort was spent preventing it from spreading to nearby structures and neighborhoods.
Water became a scarce commodity when it stopped flowing from the town’s fire hydrants. The volume of water needed to fight the fire depleted Henry’s water tower. Tankers hauled water from McKenzie, and for nearly 24 hours, they could be seen speeding up and down Highway 79 between the two towns.
On Friday evening, Henry County EMA enlisted the help of the National Guard. A Blackhawk helicopter used Bambi buckets to scoop water from Carroll Lake and other nearby bodies of water, completing multiple aerial drops on hotspots inaccessible to ground crews.
Nearby industries deployed resources as well. White Farms and Tosh Farms each sent two 5,000-gallon tanker trucks to help ferry water to the site.
Community volunteers also stepped up, taking donations of water, food, and snacks for firefighters who, by the afternoon, had already put in a full day’s work.
On Saturday, May 9, Henry County EMA announced the fire had been fully extinguished. Ozone Environmental Services worked to control water runoff from the firefighting effort, as well as initiated cleanup of the facility.
Henry County EMA credited the broad response in a statement: “We extend our gratitude to the Henry Fire Department, all participating firefighters and fire departments, state agencies, the Air National Guard, Emergency Medical Services, 911, and county Emergency Management Agencies for their assistance. We appreciate the community’s generous donations for the responders and the personnel managing the rehab center.”
