PROVIDENCE, R.I. (WPRI) — R.I. Superior Court Judge Brian Stern on Friday ordered an embattled Providence scrap metal yard to stay closed temporarily, siding with the state’s argument that the company is a public nuisance after two massive fires this year.
Stern granted a temporarily restraining order against Rhode Island Recycled Metals and directed a special master to review practices at the scrapyard to determine whether the company has made any efforts to try to prevent similar fires from happening in the future.
Dozens of firefighters responded Wednesday to a huge fire at the Allens Avenue business, which engulfed the city in smoke. It’s the second fire at the scrapyard since April and the fourth in the past six years.
“The dangers occurring on the property are not happening in a vacuum,” Stern said, highlighting the state found cancer-causing chemicals in air-quality tests as far north as Pawtucket.
“Two fires in three months at a facility that handles combustible materials is certainly an issue and warrants the court taking extraordinary steps,” he added.
WATCH: 2nd fire this year breaks out at Providence scrapyard
Recycled Metals, which had agreed to close after the fire until Monday, must now remain shuttered for an undetermined amount of time until the company can convince the court it’s taken the proper steps to prevent or mitigate future fires.
R.I. Attorney General Peter Neronha’s office was seeking to shut down Rhode Island Recycled Metals indefinitely and place it into receivership, a state-equivalent of federal bankruptcy.
State attorneys argued Recycled Metals hadn’t properly been complying with a court-ordered environmental cleanup plan for roughly a decade. Assistant Attorney General Sarah Rice described the fires as an “outrageous harm to the community.”
“We’ve had enough,” she said, urging the court not to wait until the next fire causes “an actual death or other serious injury.”
“This condition has persisted for over a decade,” she added.
Stern ruled narrowly on the temporary restraining order, leaving broader arguments about whether the company should be fined for noncompliance or placed into receivership until an evidentiary hearing could be held at future date.
Recycled Metals attorneys shot back at Rice, saying the state is targeting them unfairly, citing news stories that reported no toxic materials had been released as a result of the fire, and no unsafe air quality had been found. They also highlighted that they regularly follow all direction from the court.
“No good deed goes unpunished,” Recycled Metals attorney Richard Nicholson said, adding that “every day is a fight” with the attorney general and the R.I. Department of Environmental Management.
“The site is within industrial measures,” he said. “We have done extensive testing, and a lot of the information that is fed in the media, fed to the public, it’s misinformation.”
DEM: No air quality issues found after Providence scrapyard fire
Retired Superior Court Judge Michael Silverstein, who was Stern’s predecessor leading the court’s Business Calendar, appointed a special master to oversee Recycled Metals’ cleanup plan eight years ago after the company and state environmental regulators clashed over runoff from the site that was polluting the river.
“It’s just been a tough road to get the facility into compliance,” said DEM Director Terrence Gray told Target 12 after the court hearing, saying it was grateful for Stern’s ruling. “But so far that company has not shown any ability to operate in that way.”
Rice argued the special-master strategy hasn’t worked well enough for the company to come into compliance and be a responsible corporate citizen, arguing the court needs to shut it down, put it into receivership and only allow it to reopen once its shown it can operate safely and responsibly.
Rice said she expected the closure would be “shorter if there is a receiver.”
Recycled Metals attorney Gerard DeCelles called the state’s argument “overstated,” adding that it’s an election year and Neronha has a “history of attacking the ports when nothing else will do.” Neronha, who’s term-limited and not up for re-election this year, fired back on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter.
“Yup. That’s it. It’s not the fires. It’s not the polluted stormwater runoff. It’s not the 4 junked vessels they’ve taken forever to get out of the water. It’s not the soil cap they removed. It’s not the failure to comply with court orders. We’re ‘inveterate port attackers,’” he wrote.
DeCelles also suggested that fires at scrap metal yards are relatively common across the country, and the court shouldn’t make any rash decisions based on Wednesday’s fire when they haven’t had enough time to properly prepare their arguments.
He also asked the court not to treat them like the former 14-acre tire pile in Smithfield, dubbed “Tire Mountain,” which famously and regularly caught on fire. The mountain for years would smolder and smoke for extended periods of time.
“Fires happen,” he said. “This is done, it’s over, there was no crisis.”
DeCelles also took at a shot at the attorney general’s office, accusing them of having their motions submitted to court yesterday locked-and-loaded in the event something went wrong at the scrap metal yard.
“These were not prepared overnight,” he said, spurring one state attorney to shake her head. “They were anxiously awaiting for something to happen.”
Rice rejected the claim, saying she’d be willing to haul in her children to testify that she and her colleagues had been working overnight to get the motion ready for court Friday.
After the hearing, DeCelles said they weren’t going to try and challenge Stern’s ruling. He was also optimistic the company would reopen and resume operations soon. Recycled Metals spokesperson Patrick Sweeney said the company is already taking steps to ensure “reasonable risk management controls are in place prior to reopening.”
“RIRM anticipates, within one week, our new safety plan with be complete along with employee training and any and all necessary equipment we may need on the site,” he said. “It is our expectation that these additional steps will mitigate any events in the future. We look forward to keeping the public abreast of these actions.”
Stern’s ruling was heralded by community advocates and politicians who have lobbied for years to clean up the Providence port area, which is largely zoned for industrial use.
“The court’s decision to grant our motion, thereby shutting down operations for the foreseeable future, will ensure that South Providence won’t have to continue to bear the burden of significant health risks while this business figures out if it can operate safely,” Neronha said in a statement.
Providence Mayor Brett Smiley called it a “crucial step in ensuring the safety and health of our community.”
“We remain committed to holding RI Recycled Metals accountable and ensuring any operation at this location meets all necessary safety and municipal regulations and hope that our partners at the state will hold them accountable for environmental impacts on our community,” he said. “We will continue working with state partners to protect our neighborhoods and ensure all businesses operate safely and responsibly.”
The sentiment was echoed by Topher Hamblett, executive director of the nonprofit Save The Bay, who said the company has shown “blatant disregard for environmental laws.” Providence Sen. Tiara Mack, a Democrat, called it a “great day for neighborhoods and residents of South Providence.” Providence City Councilman Pedro Espinal characterized it as a “small victory, but a major step forward for our community.”
Eli Sherman (esherman@wpri.com) is a Target 12 investigative reporter for 12 News. Connect with him on Twitter and on Facebook.
Alexandra Leslie (aleslie@wpri.com) is a Target 12 investigative reporter covering Providence and more for 12 News. Connect with her on Twitter and on Facebook.