Operations & Training

Fire Ravages MA Recycling Center Structure

Dec. 9, 2021

A four-alarm fire consumed a multi-story building housing a commercial shredder in Everett that required a state hazmat team call out for air monitoring.

By Todd Prussman

Source Boston Herald (TNS)

Fire consumes a multi-story building at an Everett recycling center on Dec. 8, 2021.

Dec. 8—A fire at a scrap steel recycling yard in Everett is sending a massive plume of black smoke over the city as firefighters battle the blaze.

Everett Mayor Carlo DeMaria says firefighters are battling the conflagration at the Schnitzer property in Everett.

Firefighters have struck two alarms.

The Everett firefighters union, IAFF Local 143, said that everyone was "out of the building and accounted for."

The union said further that all floors of the building at the site were ablaze.

The state police fire and explosion investigation unit assigned to the state fire marshal's office is joining the Everett Fire Department to investigate the cause of the blaze, said Jake Wark, a spokesman for the state Department of Fire Services.

A state HazMat team also is on site to monitor the air for toxins that firefighters or other people could be breathing, Wark said.

Edmund Coletta, a spokesman for the State Department of Environmental Protection, said one of its first responders is on scene and set up some field instrumentation to catch the smoke. The initial field screening found no significant downward impact from the smoke, Coletta said.,

Everett police have advised residents to avoid the "areas of Robin and Dexter St in the island End Industrial area" while first responders battle the blaze.

Schnitzer Steel is a scrap metal recycler with locations around the country. Northeast locations include Everett and facilities in Manchester and Concord, N.H..

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