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Commerce City Fire

 
Site Contact:
Shun-Ping Chau
OSC

(chau.shun-ping@epa.gov)

Site Location:
Washington Street and 52nd Avenue
Commerce City, CO 80216
 response.epa.gov/CommerceCityFire

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.


View of fire from the Waste Connections entrance on Franklin. Fire location in proximity to the S. Platte River, on the east side of fire. View of the crushed vehicle piles that were involved with the fire. Denver Fire Department dousing fire with remote, and manned monitors. 58th @ Franklin St Visible smoke from the fire traveling north along the S. Platte river. View of the fire from the west, on Franklin St. View of the fire from the SW, on Franklin St.