The Indiana recycling facility where a massive fire broke out Tuesday, causing thousands to evacuate over concerns about toxic fumes, had been cited over building violations including several fire hazards, court and city documents linked to the facility’s owner show.
The site, which held large amounts of shredded and bulk recycled plastic, had been occupied for years by My-Way Trading Inc., whose owner, Seth Smith, had been at odds with Richmond city officials for several years before the city seized some of the property last year. It is not clear if My-Way was still operating at the site when the fire broke out.
Without naming Smith directly, Richmond Mayor David Snow said the business owner was “fully responsible” for the blaze after having previously been ordered to clean up the facility’s fire hazards.
“We have been through several steps since then to order this particular business owner to clean up this property because we were aware that what was operating here was a fire hazard,” Snow said Wednesday.
But some residents have blamed the city, saying it took over the site and then failed to clean it up.
“The city was fully aware of the last four years and they’ve had full control of the property for months, so why didn’t they clean it up with all the resources available to them?” said Darrell Wilson, 48, a Richmond resident who owns property that abuts the My Way Trading warehouse site.
According to minutes from a September 2019 hearing, Smith was issued several cleanup orders by the city’s Unsafe Building Commission, which said the property had several code violations, including excessive amounts of combustible plastics, a faulty sprinkler system and no working fire suppression system. The commission also said cardboard on the site was kept too close to the property line and that fire department access to the site was blocked.
Smith, whose business later changed its name from My-Way Trading Inc. to Cornerstone Trading Group, had…
Read the full article here