Officials: Put debris fires out; incinerator is on way

CLARK, Pa. -- There was a thick grayish-blue haze over the eastern half of the borough Tuesday.
Residents began cleaning up and burning tree limbs and other debris from the tornado that hit town Sunday night.
The fires are causing air pollution that officials want to be eliminated as quickly as possible.
The state Department of Environmental Protection said Tuesday that it will bring in a machine to burn trees and other wooden debris in a central, controlled location, asking that residents stop burning their debris.
The scene
On Tuesday, nearly every other yard in the devastated section of the borough around Nora and Milton streets had a roaring fire going as cleanup workers tossed tree branches, limbs, logs and other material onto the blazes.
Mayor Douglas C. Bradley made a public appeal to put out those fires.
"Refrain from burning," he urged, explaining that the borough will arrange for all burnable debris to be hauled to the municipal building on Winner Road where DEP will provide a machine to incinerate it.
A DEP spokesman said that will be an "air curtain destructor," which is a system that uses a large fan to set up an air flow in a controlled burn pit that prevents the escape of smoke and debris from the fire.
The borough will ask local municipalities to help provide trucks to haul material to the burn site.