Fire at Minnesota's largest paper recycling facility

ST. PAUL (AP) - Officials say all employees were evacuated without injury as firefighters battled a blaze at a large paper recycling plant in St. Paul Thursday.

The Rock-Tenn plant recycles paper into packaging products, bleached and 100 percent recycled paperboard and merchandising displays.

Taking out the trash
A front-end loader hauls paper at the Rock Tenn recycling facility in St. Paul.
MPR file photo/Marisa Helms

The two-alarm fire was reported about 4:30 p.m. and was extinguished within two hours. The company said the fire was confined to the boxboard dry-end area of the 42-acre facility.

About 20 workers were in the area when the fire was reported, the company said. Cause of the fire and the estimate of damages weren't immediately determined.

Rock-Tenn, headquartered in Norcross, Ga., is Minnesota's largest paper recycling facility with nearly 500 employees at the plant, which recycles about 1,000 tons of paper daily, the company said.

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