Police: Electrical Problem Sparks Fire At Bayonne Chemical Plant

BAYONNE, N.J. (CBSNewYork/AP) -- Authorities said a blaze that broke out at a large chemical processing facility in northern New Jersey appears to have been an electrical fire and caused no injuries.

Police spokesman Lt. Anthony Serafino said the fire at the International Matex Tank Terminal in Bayonne burned for about three hours Wednesday night before it was extinguished.

Bayonne Public Safety Director Jason O'Donnell told the Jersey Journal that the fire apparently started in a cogenerating station that possibly contained an electrical transformer.

The blaze was contained to a small area of the 520-acre facility, which has hundreds of tanks handling petroleum and specialty chemicals.

The fire produced heavy smoke visible over a wide swath of northern New Jersey and New York City.

Bayonne is about eight miles west of Manhattan.

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