Contentious fight over smoldering debris at an MW Horticulture site

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Bayshore Fire Rescue at the MW Horticulture North Fort Myers site. Photo via WINK News.
FILE: Bayshore Fire Rescue at the MW Horticulture North Fort Myers site on January 14, 2019. Photo via WINK News.

There is a contentious fight over smoldering debris at an MW Horticulture Recycling Facility site between the company, the local fire dept. and neighbors.

MW Horticulture fails an inspection by the fire department. Bayshore Fire Chief Larry Nesbit still sees the mulch piles as a hazard.

The department responded to the debris recycling facility 45 times last year, with violations dating back to February.

MW Horticulture North Yard site. Photo via WINK News.
MW Horticulture North Yard site. Photo via WINK News.

“It’s probably greater than 10 percent of my whole fire call volume,” Nisbet said. “We’ve got large piles of unprocessed material that could ignite or catch fire,”

A pile of Hurricane Irma debris still sparks up regularly. The fire chief said they have more material than they can handle. They plan its next inspection Monday.

“There is no imminent danger here,” said Denise Houghtaling, owner of MW Horticulture.

MW Horticulture has until June to remove the Hurricane Irma debris in its entirety. In the meantime, the facility can not bring anything in for business and it is feeling the effects.

“We’ve spent $150,000 in moving material out,” Houghtaling said. “At a certain point when does the money dry up?”

But neighbors said the impact on them is far more significant.

‘You come out here some days and the smoke is so bad you can’t hardly breath,” said Kathy Damron, a neighbor. “We’re tired of having to live this way.”

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