Residents of Fredericton neighbourhood nervous after fire at AIM scrapyard
The fire on Carman Avenue was put out quickly, investigation is underway
Thursday's fire at a north-side Fredericton scrapyard has neighbours casting a wary eye across the street.
"We're surrounded by a big wooded area and there's a protected wetlands behind us, so the wrong spark could kind of take the forest and go," said Ryan Feener, who lives directly across the street from the scrapyard.
"That's a general concern that you kind of have to live with."
The yard is owned by American Iron and Metal, which has faced public scrutiny at other sites in the province. The facility on Saint John's west side was the source of frequent community complaints over explosions and the site of a massive fire in 2023.
That fire raged for two days and the company licence to operate in New Brunswick was eventually revoked, but the company is seeking a court order to have it reinstated.
In Moncton, an AIM site on Toombs Street was the focus of complaints from area residents about loud noises, vibrations, and smells. A sound barrier made of shipping containers was installed to deal with the noise.
Gladys Brennan lives four homes away from the gates of the scrapyard. She said ideally she'd like to see the business moved to a different location.
"There's just too many lives for something like that to be in here," she said.
"They should just take it and move it where there's no homes, nobody living and then if something blows up and it gets out of control they don't have to worry about it, because they're away from people, they're away from people's homes."
According to the Fredericton Fire Department, the fire was reported just before 3 p.m. and was under control before 5 p.m. The fire was limited to a small scrap pile and the trailer it was being loaded into.
David McKinley, assistant deputy fire chief, said it appeared that AIM was following its fire safety plan, ensuring that piles of scrap were not too large and were kept separate from one another.
"It wasn't a great big pile that we had to worry about spreading to the rest of the yard because their piles were all made small and manageable, and that way if there was a fire, we didn't have to worry about a large incident," he said.
"This ended up being a fairly low consequence incident compared to most scrapyard fires."
The cause is being investigated, but McKinley said scrapyard fires usually begin with a battery or some kind of spark.
In order to put out the fire, firefighters had to run hoses from a hydrant 600 metres away from the yard, but the department is prepared for those type of situations, he said.
But some in the area would like to see a fire hydrant closer to the community.
"A small fire can lead to a big one, and the fire hydrant's out there a half a mile away or what not," said resident Gary Northcott.
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