LAKE PLACID — A fire at the North Elba Recycling Center and Transfer Station on Friday took two hours and 6,000 gallons of water to extinguish. North Elba town Supervisor Derek Doty said Monday that the fire did not cause any damage.

“It was more of an inconvenience,” Doty said. “We are so fortunate that the trailer didn’t sit there until Sunday or Monday when we’re closed and then ignite. There’s a possibility it could’ve transferred to other property.”

The Lake Placid Volunteer Fire Department responded to the fire, which originated in a trash compactor, at 1:53 p.m. Friday with two trucks and 17 members. The Saranac Lake Volunteer Fire Department and North Elba Highway Department also assisted in extinguishing the blaze and Essex County sent a truck from Elizabethtown to assist. The LPVFD was back in service at 4:08 p.m. Friday.

Doty said that 17 tons of burning garbage had to be removed from a trailer, which catches the garbage from the trash compactor, and spread onto the roadway to be hosed down. After the fire was extinguished, town employees monitored the garbage to make sure it did not flare up again.

The cause of the fire is still unknown, but Doty said he suspects somebody threw out ashes that were still burning.

“It’s happened in years past,” Doty said. “People are very negligent in what they throw out, but thank God, we had a great reaction on the part of our landfill supervisor, Shannon Porter.”