"It's what I call a once in a lifetime, hopefully, type of fire," says Champion Township fire chief John Hickey.
 
He remembers that December 2007 night like it was yesterday - a raging fire at a recycling facility that commanded manpower from nearly 20 departments.
 
"You had the fire marshal, police department, Red Cross...basically we were there three and a half days," Hickey said.
 
Nearly 15 years later, watching a video of Tuesday's blaze at a northern Ohio recycling plant gave him deja vu.
 
"Smoke tells me definitely a lot of plastic," said Hickey. "They're doing the same thing we had to do as far as digging it out."
 
Flames ripped through Keegan Enterprises outside Clyde in Sandusky County.
 
According to our affiliate WKYC, the plant stores and recycles wood pallets.
 
That meant Hickey was right - there was a lot of plastic inside.
 
It also meant it's not a fire you can fight in the usual way.
 
"You'll never put that kind of fire out with water," he said. "We had to bring in thousands of tons of dirt to put it out. Basically we had to smother it."
 
While there were no lives to save inside the building, in either case, firefighters had to work extra hard to protect their own lives.
 
"We had propane tanks that kept firing off, you couldn't go on the roof 'cause it was so hot," said Hickey.
 
Two months passed before crews could come back in and get all the dirt and wreckage out.
 
"You can have a plan but it all kind of goes out the window," Hickey says. "Depend on your help...don't be afraid to call for help."
 
Chief Hickey believes the EPA will likely have to monitor and test the air near the fire.
 
There was another fire at this same company in Sandusky County last Fall.