(Updated 10:45-a.m. with suspected cause)

An old fire may have been what caused a new fire that burned furiously Monday night on the north side Atlantic. Alantic Fire Chief Mark McNees said crews responded to the City of Atlantic’s Yard Waste Site on the west side of the Schildberg Recreation Area, at around 8:50-p.m.  He says there was a tremendous amount of flames and embers being blown about from the large pile of burning sticks, wood, and large tree trunks. Some of the embers were flying over to the east side of the Recreation Area, as far as Buck Creek Road.

McNees said the pile will be smoldering for quite some time, even though they poured 13-to 14-thousand gallons of water on the fire. The fear now is that strong winds today will whip up more embers and cause another, separate blaze. McNees said it’s possible the fire could have been accidental or related to spontaneous combustion, but it’s too early to tell. He said City crews were compacting the pile of debris over the past couple of days, but it’s not clear if that had something to do with it.

Late this (Tuesday) morning, McNees said he thinks ashes from a very old pile west of Monday night’s fire was probably stirred-up by the wind and ignited the nearby pile. He said also that City crews have not lit any of the burn piles in quite some time.

Fire fighters were on the scene for a couple of hours. He said if the winds had kept up, the fire could have spread east toward Olive Street.