Fire causes significant damage to Saint John's AIM Recycling plant

More calls to move Saint John recycling facility Fire and explosions at AIM have neighbours concerned for their safety. Mike Cameron reports.

HALIFAX — A significant fire has caused hundreds of thousands of dollars in damage at the American Iron and Metal Recycling facility in Saint John, N.B.

Saint John Deputy Fire Chief Mike Carr says the call came in at 10:30 p.m. Thursday. Roughly 23 firefighters responded to the plant.

The fire, which caused several minor explosions, started inside a large storage unit that holds non-metal materials.

The fire was contained to the storage unit and put out within an hour, but Carr says it was “labour-intensive” and required a heavy response from emergency crews.

Firefighters remained on scene until 4 a.m. Friday to monitor hot spots.

No one was injured, but the fire caused hundreds of thousands of dollars in damage to product and infrastructure.

The cause of the fire is under investigation, but is not considered suspicious at this time.

The New Brunswick Department of Environment was also on scene Friday morning.

AIM Recycling also confirmed the fire in a statement on its Facebook page. The company says it is cooperating with the fire department and local authorities to determined the cause.

Meanwhile, the Port of Saint John says it is “taking this incident seriously.” It activated its emergency response plan Wednesday evening and assembled a team at the site and at its Emergency Operations Centre.

The port says its Emergency Operations Centre “has geared down” now that police and fire crews have concluded their operation at the plant.