Firefighters’ union concerned fire at Strathcona County recycling plant will recur given recent history

A weekend fire at the Genalta recycling facility near Edmonton is being investigated by multiple agencies. CTV News Edmonton's Amanda Anderson has the latest.

A large fire at a scrap metal processing plant in Strathcona County over the weekend is under investigation by several government agencies.

And now, the union representing the firefighters who battled the blaze at GenAlta Recycling that lasted more than two days are raising concerns of their own.

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Strathcona County said its fire crews answered a call of the fire at 8:30 a.m. on Saturday in the west end of Sherwood Park and contained it that day, but thick smoke continued to rise over the county and southeast Edmonton until the blaze was out late Monday morning.

No injuries were reported.

Edmonton police had closed 34 Street between the Sherwood Park Freeway and Baseline Road and reopened it on Monday morning.

And while the fire and resulting smoke is out, the leadership of the Strathcona Firefighters Association says its concerned about the effects on not just the health of firefighters who worked on the GenAlta blaze but on the public’s, too.

Tim Moen, the vice-president of the IAFF Local 2461, said they’re identifying union members who were exposed to the smoke “fairly heavily,” and sending them for heavy metal testing “and things like that to see if we can identify anything that might be toxic.”

“When we see the smoke plume shift and go towards our community, where our family and our children are sleeping and living, that’s a concern to us, and we think it’s preventable,” Moen told CTV News Edmonton on Wednesday.

Alberta Environment responded to monitor air quality, and an advisory was issued to the public.

The union’s concern is that the fire at the recycler isn’t a one-off.

Moen says there have been several fires at the plant this year and in recent years, including a large one in 2020 that he says took fire crews 31 hours to put out.

“When we see a pattern of going back to the same business over and over again, we have to believe that there’s something that can be done,” he said. “If we know that in the next few months we’re likely to respond back there, we should be able to identify what’s causing the problem and fix it.”

Strathcona County Emergency Services, Alberta Environment, and Occupational Health and Safety are investigating the weekend fire.

In a statement, Strathcona County Mayor Rod Frank says his government “looks forward to the results of this investigation and any recommendations that will support community safety and help prevent future fires at this site.”

CTV News Edmonton has contacted GenAlta Recycling for comment about the fire and concerns, and is waiting for a response.

Moen is glad the issue is getting attention.

“It’s definitely something we’re bringing up now,” he said. “Maybe it’s something that we should have brought up in the past, given how many fires we’ve gone to there, but it’s definitely something that our county is concerned about and they’re working on solutions for.”