PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — Camden City Council has voted to temporarily suspend EMR’s scrapyard license after yet another fire sent plumes of smoke billowing through the neighborhood late last month. Council members and residents said enough is enough and want the site permanently shut down.
“I want to make sure that we’re doing everything we can be doing, so I hired an independent fire engineer company to come out and kind of evaluate everything we’ve done and everything we do, make some recommendations if there’s anything more we can do,” said EMR CEO Joe Balzano.
Balzano said their brand-new fire suppression system didn’t work as expected in its first big test, but they identified the electrical failure point and the system should work the next time.
In the meantime, Balzano said he will be working with the city to do what’s needed to reopen, perhaps as soon as next month, when the license can be reevaluated.
The New Jersey Attorney General’s Office filed a lawsuit against EMR earlier this year. Officials said there were 12 fires over five years, and the company didn’t make the necessary changes to prevent them.
