PROVIDENCE – A Superior Court judge on Friday ordered the embattled scrap metal yard on Allens Avenue to be temporarily closed after a second fire broke out on the property earlier this week.
Justice Brian Stern granted a temporary restraining order on Rhode Island Recycled Metals LLC, shutting the scrapyard down temporarily until a special master reviews the company’s practices to determine if any effort has been made to prevent future fires, WPRI-TV CBS 12 reported Friday.
On Wednesday, Attorney General Peter F. Neronha filed a motion for an emergency preliminary injunction to shut down RIRM’s operations, and to convert the special mastership into receivership after a second fire in a year broke out at the facility on July 10, filling the neighborhood with smoke and snarling nearby traffic.
Neronha applauded Stern's decision Friday.
“The court’s decision to grant our motion, thereby shutting down operations for the foreseeable future, will ensure that South Providence won’t have to continue to bear the burden of significant health risks while this business figures out if it can operate safely," Neronha said in a statement. "I look forward to the special master’s report and we will work diligently to make sure RIRM’s negligence doesn’t continue to harm South Providence.”
Terry Gray, director of the R.I. Department of Environmental Management, was also pleased.
"Today’s outcome is the result of a team effort between the attorney general’s Office and DEM staff attorneys,” Gray said. “We stand ready to hold R.I. Recycled Metals accountable and compel correction of the environmental violations at the site. That is what our community deserves.”
In his ruling Friday, Stern said the state showed “reasonable likelihood” that the July 10 fire “negatively affected air quality – a right to be enjoyed by all,” WPRI reported. He also cited state-submitted data collected after the fire that showed cancer-causing chemicals found in air-quality tests taken in Providence’s Fox Point neighborhood and to the north in Pawtucket.
However, arguments about whether the company should be fined for noncompliance or placed into receivership were left for a future evidentiary hearing, WPRI reported.
Rhode Island Recycled Metals attorney Gerard DeCelles said the court shouldn’t make any rash decisions based on the Wednesday fire when the company hasn’t had enough time to properly prepare its arguments. DeCellese suggested fires at scrap metal yards are relatively common.
Providence City Councilman Pedro Espinal, whose ward includes the area along Allens Avenue, vowed to keep fighting to have Rhode Island Recycled Metals closed permanently.
"I'm grateful that the attorney general took swift action after Wednesday’s fire, and that Judge Stern recognized the damage this reckless facility is causing,” Espinal said Friday afternoon. “Today's decision is a small victory, but a major step forward for our community. For the health of our neighbors, the safety of our firefighters, and the protection of our environment, Rhode Island Recycled Metals needs to be permanently shut down."
On April 10, the Providence Fire Department responded to a fire at Recycled Metals and found a 100-foot by 100-foot scrap pile in flames. It took approximately eight hours to extinguish the fire and there were no reported injuries.
Patrick Sweeney, spokesperson for Recycled Metals, said in a statement to PBN that the April fire started in one of the company’s light iron piles, which does not contain combustible materials, and hours after trespassers “Had to be removed from the area.”
The cause of the fire is still under investigation.
