On July 10, 2018 at approximately 3:15 PM a fire was reported at the EVRAZ Recycling facility (Site) in Commerce City, Colorado. Adams County Fire Department and Denver Fire Department arrived on scene. The EVRAZ Recycling lot is a metal recycling plant, containing mostly metal scrap, but the components burned could also include plastics, aluminum, paper, cardboard and other materials.
At approximately 7:30 PM Tri-County Health Department requested assistance from EPA with air monitoring due to materials containing hydrocarbons which were present. EPA Emergency Response deployed an On-Scene Coordinator (OSC) and START contractors. They arrived at the Incident Command staging area at approximately 9:15 PM and conducted roving air monitoring in the nearby residential neighborhood.
As of July 11, 2018 1:00 AM, volatile organic compounds (VOC's) in the residential neighborhood never exceeded 70 part per billion. EPA OSC and START contractors were temporarily demobilized shortly after 1 AM and returned to the Site again at 6:30 AM.
All employees at the recycling facility were evacuated and accounted for.