Further investigation has revealed significant damage to the Eastman Recycling Services plant following the large fire Thursday morning.

Steinbach Fire Chief Kel Toews says official estimates will still have to be set by engineers, but the damage was significant.

"The machine that the fire was in was probably about a million dollar machine., whether they can do partial repairs of it is hard to say. The next question would be the building itself, what kind of heat damage was done to the structure, so I am guessing anywhere from half a million to $2 million dollars."

Toews says with so much unknown material inside Eastman Recycling Services, the Steinbach Fire Department had to approach the fire with extra caution.

"We don't know what is in there, we don't know the toxicity. As we were going in we could hear small propane bottles exploding so you have got to approach it with caution, and the other thing is when you are in there and doing some overhaul you still have to be wearing your breathing apparatus because you do not know what is in there and what is in the air."

Toews says they continued to wear their breathing apparatus' even after the fire was put out and they were searching the scene. He says the Office of the Fire Commissioner is still investigating the cause of the fire.

"I haven't got a report from the Office of the Fire Commissioner yet, it appears to have started in one of their sorting bins, we may never determine a cause, just because there are so many things dumped in there that we may not know the exact cause."