High Car Stacks Blamed in Rhode Island Recycling Yard Fire

Officials in Johnston, Rhode Island say firefighters struggled to douse a large recycling plant fire over the weekend because cars there were stacked too high and were piled too close to each other.

The blaze at the Metals Recycling plant on Sunday destroyed roughly 600 crushed cars.

Officials say there were 15 to 20 cars in some of the stacks, forcing firefighters to use grapples and forklifts to remove each car from the pile and extinguish the flames.

Fire Chief Andrew Baynes says he plans to propose stricter regulations for the plant.

A spokesman for the plant says it’ll no longer accept cars with tires and will make sure that batteries and gas tanks have been removed from the vehicles it does take.

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Information from: The Providence Journal