There were scrap-yard fires in Dallas on May 13, Phoenix on May 14 and Louisville on May 20, the same day that fire broke out at Dayton’s Franklin Iron & Metal Corp.
“Scrap-yard fires happen — it’s the nature of the business,” said John Gilstrap, safety director for the Institute of Scrap Recycling Industries, a trade group whose members include Franklin Iron & Metal. “I wouldn’t say they’re common, but they’re not unusual.”
Gilstrap said he doesn’t believe scrap fires are on the rise. But it’s hard to know for certain: Federal environmental and fire-protection agencies don’t track such fires specifically, and there’s no scrap-fire rate to compare against that of other industries.
Dayton fire Chief Herbert Redden said the cause of the Franklin Iron & Metal fire at 2015 E. First St. remains under investigation. Officials don’t yet have an estimate of the costs of the firefighting operation, including overtime, but Dayton owes Wright-Patterson Air Force Base $29,000 for firefighting foam.
James Cox, president of the Dayton firefighters’ union, said firefighters poured an average of 7,000 gallons of water per minute on the fire for 15 hours, which totals 6.3 million gallons. Most of that water, he said, went to protect Franklin Iron & Metal’s multimillion dollar auto shredding equipment.
Aside from arson, scrap-yard fires can be caused by torching operations, sparks from equipment and careless smoking, Cox said.
Dayton fire officials said the Franklin Iron & Metal blaze was within a 50-foot pile of some 3,000 vehicles, although company General Manager Greg Clouse said, “We believe the number of vehicles to be significantly less than reported.”
“The cause of the fire remains under investigation and a deliberately set fire has not be eliminated,” Clouse said. “At this point, there is no indication that the cause of the fire is related to Franklin Iron & Metal’s operations. We will continue to enforce our existing policies.”
The company doesn’t accept vehicles containing batteries, gas tanks, polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) and mercury, Clouse said.
There were no serious injuries reported in the Franklin Iron & Metal fire. U.S. Environmental Protection Agency air samples conducted hours into the daylong fire found no detectable level of contaminants.
Dennis Bristow, coordinator of the Dayton Regional Hazardous Materials Response Team, said Dayton sewer workers put booms at the Keowee Street location where storm and sanitary sewer runoff falls into the Mad River, and Ohio EPA officials found no dangerous levels of toxins in the river water.
But the U.S. EPA says burning plastics — including those found in auto interiors — create dioxins and furans, exposure to which has been linked to increased cancer risks, skin disorders and changes in hormone levels. On May 21, the EPA released a draft of a document reviewing the scientific literature on dioxins, part of a major government reassessment on their health effects on the public.
Airborne dioxins can travel long distances, be deposited on plants and be eaten by fish and animals. Dioxins accumulate in animal fat. Most human exposure comes from eating contaminated food, according to the EPA.
Stephen Lester is science director for the Center for Health, Environment & Justice, a group founded by Lois Gibbs in the aftermath of the environmental disaster at her town of Love Canal, N.Y. Lester said dioxins can be present in particulate matter. Officials at the Regional Air Pollution Control Agency said a monitor at the Dayton Public Library downtown detected high levels of particulates in the early hours of the fire.
“What were people actually breathing?” Lester said. “If the particulates had asbestos and dioxin and arsenic and God knows what else, that increases the health risk.”
Ellis Jacobs, senior attorney for the nonprofit Advocates for Legal Equality, said he has requested results of the EPA’s samples, but not all of the results are in.
“There were very serious efforts to test the air (during the fire),” he said. “Whether they were testing for the right things, I’m still waiting to see.”
Jacobs said the fire should prompt a second look at the protocol for air quality testing to ensure that citizens get thorough and timely information about any hazards during a fire.
“If these sorts of fires aren’t rare occurrences, then we really need to make sure people are protected,” he said. “I’m not sure we have that capability right now.”
Contact this reporter at
(937) 225-2264 or tbeyerlein@
DaytonDailyNews.com.
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