September 2020 Fire Report: Scrap Metal Fires Surge!

SEATTLE (Waste 360): Scrap metal fires surged during the month of September, contributing to the second-highest number of monthly incidents since I began reporting waste and recycling fires in February 2016. Throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, the waste, paper and plastic facility fires made up a larger percentage of the total fire incidents each month when compared to historical data. In September, however, the tables were turned. We experienced 28 waste and recycling facility fire incidents; scrap metal fires made up 57 percent of these fires. If you include e-scrap, it increases to 65%.  At Fire Rover, we extinguished 12 fires at our clients’ facilities; eight of those fires were at metal recycling operations, originating in either the light iron piles or auto shredder residue (fluff) piles. 

During the past 12 months, the waste and recycling industry has experienced 302 reported facility fires in the U.S. and Canada. Additionally, we incurred 20 reported injuries and four deaths that can either be directly or indirectly attributed to these fire incidents. Based on reasonable assumptions, we can extrapolate that 1,800-plus facility fires have occurred during that time, which, based on the number of facilities reported by the Environmental Research & Education Foundation, is more than 40 percent of the industry. I define “reported facility fires” as any fire that has been reported by the media that occurs at a waste or recycling facility in the U.S. and Canada. Typically, the fires that are reported by the media are larger fires that require fire professionals to arrive on the scene and where there are effects that the public can witness.    

Some local media outlets give the scrap metal industry a bad rap, and that’s mostly because they don’t fully understand our complex industry. Many scrap yards are family owned and have been in business for decades—some have even hit the century mark. Methodically, many metal recyclers open scrap yards near industry and in urban areas, but some that started in sparsely populated areas have had communities build around them over time—only to then file “nuisance” complaints against them.

Courtesy: www.waste360.com