Firefighters deal with AIM blaze
Industrial recycling company has checkered history in New Brunswick in recent years
Fredericton firefighters brought a blaze at an industrial recycling facility on the city’s north side under control within two hours Thursday afternoon.
A Fredericton police cruiser was blocking a portion of Carman Avenue, just past Barkers Point Elementary School, on Thursday afternoon to keep people away from the site of a fire being tended to by Fredericton Fire Department personnel.
In a social-media post just before 3 p.m. Thursday, the Fredericton Fire Department advised people to avoid the 400 block of Carman Avenue as firefighters were dealing with an incident at an industrial property.
In an email to the Fredericton Independent, assistant deputy fire chief Dave McKinley confirmed the fire was at the AIM Recycling facility located at 400 Carman Ave.
At 3:25 p.m., the fire department warned people of an air-quality problem in the area due to the AIM fire.
“Due to the nature of the materials involved in the fire on Carman Avenue, residents are advised to avoid the smoke issuing from the fire,” it reported on social media.
The department noted that the fire was contained at 4:30 p.m. and that firefighters remained on the scene to deal with hot spots.
The air advisory was lifted at 4:50 p.m.
The fire department issued a news release Thursday night, reporting that the call came in at 2:49 p.m. and firefighters brought the fire under control by 4:40 p.m.
“The fire was limited to a salvage trailer, and a small pile of metal debris,” it said. “Units were clear of the scene at 6 p.m.”
The first personnel on the scene quickly set about fighting the blaze, while units that arrived subsequently worked to set up additional equipment and a more reliable water supply by stretching a supply hose more than 500 metres, McKinley said in the release.
The department had a total of five apparatus and crews on the scene, plus command staff and one fire investigator, it said.
The release made no mention of a possible cause for the fire.
AIM Recycling, a Quebec-based company that’s a division of American Iron & Metal, has been the source of controversy and even catastrophe in New Brunswick in recent years.
There were explosions at its Saint John port facility in recent years and workplace deaths, and a huge fire that burned for two days in September 2023 at the same site gave rise to concerns among nearby residents over safety and pollutants.
The company also operates a scrapyard in Moncton that’s been the focus of noise complaints.
That led the company to erect a wall of shipping containers to block the noise, but residents reported it remains an issue.
The province gave the company more time by way of an operating approval to assess the effectiveness of the measure as a means to reduce the noise.
Don MacPherson can be contacted at ftonindependent@gmail.com.
Glad to hear it wasn’t as bad as the bag factory was that night down there {don’t recall for sure what year but want to say late 90’s-early 2000’s} that was quite the inferno