Nearby businesses continue to worry as mulch fire burns over 30 hours

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MOTTVILLE TOWNSHIP, Mich. -- A nearby business is still on high alert as the mulch fire in Mottville Township, Michigan has continued to burn since Monday afternoon.

At times, the smoke was visible for miles and the flames—glowing in the night sky.

The smoke, so bad Tuesday, that officials once again shut down parts of M-103 the same road used by a nearby lumber company which stores nearly 16 million feet of wood throughout multiple warehouses.

"We were watching it. Kept running around the complex making sure we didn't have any hot embers. We had a bit of a scare out back in the back corner where a few were coming through the trees but nothing lit,” said Nicholas Modert, supervisor at Bank Hardwoods, Inc.

A pond, right across the street from the scene, is part of Banks Hardware, Inc. It is a 1 million-gallon pond.

Employees with the company say firefighters used nearly 500,000 gallons of water to fight those flames, Monday.

"Yeah we had four different tanker trucks in here off and on all night. They were hitting it pretty good. They didn't pump us down too far but we were watching it,” explained Modert.

He says moving forward, employees will be keeping an eye on the smoke—hoping the wind keeps the fire at bay.

"We are not really doing anything with it anymore, obviously we are keeping an eye on things but pretty much the danger was yesterday that we were really getting nervous about,” said Modert.

Officials believe the fire will continue to burn for another week or two.

Neighbors continue to worry too. Click here to read what is on the minds of those who live close to this persistent fire.  

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