PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — The city’s Department of Public Health continues to monitor the air quality in the Wissinoming neighborhood of Northeast Philadelphia after a junkyard fire clouded the sky with thick plumes of black smoke Wednesday afternoon. No toxic compounds have been detected, and residents have been given the all-clear.
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There are no reports of any injuries at this time.
At least 120 Philadelphia firefighters were up against a three-alarm blaze at Martins Recycling, tucked away off of Tacony Street, in the area of Harbison Street and Torresdale Avenue. Officials say, just before 3 p.m., several cars, tires and structures caught fire on the north side of I-95.
The property runs along Amtrak and SEPTA railroad tracks that border the highway. SEPTA officials said no lines suspended service. A man on the Trenton Line tweeted from the safety of the SEPTA railcar: “Massive fire along the regional rail/Amtrak line in between Bridesburg and Tacony stations. You could feel the heat from the train.”
The site of the fire created a challenge for the Fire Department, said Deputy Commissioner Jeffrey Thompson.
“Because of the pocket that we are operating in, there are train tracks behind us. We have a lot of dead-end hydrants, which reduces the availability of water in the area,” said Thompson.
How yet another fire at a city junkyard started, and where exactly, is still under investigation.
“It certainly is not normal,” Thompson said. “We’ll have to work with our partners and [the Department of] Licenses and Inspections to see if there is anything we can do to make the fire code more robust to maybe reduce or limit that type of fire.”
The smoke stuck around for a while after firefighters got the fire under control, around 4:40 p.m. People in the area wore masks and covered their mouths and noses.
Kayla, 11, held her nose as she walked into a nearby Shop Rite with her family.
“It smells pretty bad,” she said “Like really bad.”
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The city’s Office of Emergency Management and Department of Public Health originally advised neighbors to stay indoors. A few hours later, the city gave the all-clear, saying investigators had found no toxic compounds in the air samples they collected.
Air quality was already under threat before this fire. Last Friday, the Health Department issued a similar message in Southwest Philadelphia, after a junkyard fire broke out near 61st Street and Passyunk Avenue.
And a Code Orange air quality alert has been in effect for Philadelphia and neighboring counties since Tuesday as wind carry in smoke from a wildfire in Nova Scotia, Canada.
The city's Department of Public Health and Office of Emergency Management are monitoring the air quality, already under threat. A Code Orange air quality alert is in effect for Philadelphia and neighboring counties as wind brings in smoke from a wildfire in Nova Scotia, Canada.
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