Crews battle flames at New Carlisle scrap metal yard

NEW CARLISLE, Ind. -- Crews have been on the scene of a fire at a metal scrap yard in New Carlisle since Tuesday afternoon.

The bad weather, especially the high winds have caused the fire to start growing again in the last couple of hours.

Residents said the smoke rose as crews were putting out the flames.

“It smelt pretty bad earlier this evening, and the was smoke flying over the top of us,” Mike Tierney said.

Crews from across Michiana team up to get this fire at a metal recycling business on Smilax road under control. There were roughly 100 firefighters battling the fire at its peak on Tuesday afternoon.

The St . Joseph County Emergency Management Director said fire crews pumped more than a million gallons of water on the blaze in the first several hours, having to dip into the New Carlisle reserves.

Neighbor Mike Tierney said it’s not the first time a fire has broken out at the scrap metal dealer.

“It’s been an ongoing nuisance for the local fire department. There have been things going on pretty much nonstop since it’s been in there, explosions and fires are a common occurrence,” Tierney said.

In fact, a fire occurred at the dealer on Smilax Road back in 2017, but Emergency Management Director John Antonucci said, this was the first fire since new management took over.

Omnisource took over, I think a little over a year ago, the prior owners chronically had problems and they were at odds with the Carlisle fire department,” Antonucci said.

The cause of the fire is still under investigation. No one was injured in the fire, but a fire official said one firefighter has been taken to the hospital due to heat exhaustion, and another firefighter had a possible broken ankle.