Black smoke pours from scrapyard fire near downtown Dayton

UPDATE @ 5 p.m.

Dayton firefighters responded to a large fire this afternoon at the Franklin Iron and Metal scrapyard on East First Street.

Black smoke was seen rising from the fire, reported at 3:20 p.m., near downtown Dayton.

“It’s a large pile of shredded automobiles. The pile is maybe the size of one or two houses; it’s a fairly large pile, District Chief James Rose of the Dayton Fire Department said of the heap of non-metal items such as seats pulled out of scrapped vehicles. “So it’s just a matter of penetrating the fire, and officials from the recycling center showed up and they’re dispersing the pile for us. That was a big help.”

It’s not clear what sparked the fire, but no one was hurt and the business was closed.

“It’s not going to be a multiple-day event like we had several years ago,” Rose said.

Fires at the recycling business are not routine, but not terribly unusual Rose said. There were fires reported in 2016, 2011 and one in 2010 that took several days to extinguish, our news archives show.

FIRST REPORT

Black smoke is rising from a fire near downtown Dayton and firefighters have been called to respond to the Franklin Iron and Metal property on East First Street.

The fire was reported around 3:20 p.m. at the scrapyard business, 1939 E. First St.

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