A blackened football field-sized heap of shredded cars and appliances, near a partially evacuated Pueblo neighborhood, leaked contaminants into a creek Monday as EPA responders monitored air and water.
Early air tests for toxics and radioactivity raised no immediate exposure concerns, EPA spokesman Rich Mylott said.
Federal crews drew samples from Salt Creek, which flows into the Arkansas River, looking for volatile organic compounds and metals.
Pueblo firefighters doused the flames on the 70-foot-deep heap Sunday afternoon through midnight.
It was the second fire since April 19 at the American Iron & Metal scrap yard, which moved a few years ago from another location.
An advisory urging residents to “shelter in place,” sealing their homes, or evacuate was lifted Monday.
Firefighters called the fire’s cause “undetermined.” The scrap yard owner couldn’t be reached for comment.
As particulate-heavy black smoke forced road closures Sunday, longtime resident Ladd Flores, 60, pumping gas into a vehicle that held his pregnant daughter-in-law, decided to flee to relatives up north.
“It was a chemical smell,” Flores said.
On April 19, he and his wife awoke during the first scrap yard fire, thinking their home was burning, and gazed into a bewildering black fog.
“A lot of people, they’re not very happy. It’s kind of risky to have it happen twice in less than two months.”
Many residents are elderly.
“We’re working with the property owner to decrease the pile,” Pueblo County spokeswoman Sarah Joseph said, “and to decrease the chance that a fire could occur again.”
