Water & air samples tested after Pueblo scrap fire

A health advisory put in place after a fire in Pueblo has been lifted.

The fire broke out Sunday afternoon at American Iron & Metal’s off Highway 50, near the Salt Creek neighborhood.

It was the second fire at the scrap yard in less than two months.

“Why did this happen again? They should have done something in the first place. I thought that pile was going to be moved weeks ago,” neighbor Josie Marrufo said.

A fire broke out April 19th in the same spot, in the same pile of scrap.

“To see that it was the same pile over again, it’s not right,” Marrufo said.

“The big issue is the size of the pile. We need to get the size down. Right now we don’t think people have been exposed to anything. We have our monitors set up around the pile,” Martin McComb of the Environmental Protection Agency said.

The EPA is concerned about the air and water in the area. Water is flowing from the scrap yard into Salt Creek.

“All that water that was put onto that fire is going somewhere. We have a crew getting samples of the runoff and Salt Creek,” said McComb.

The Pueblo Fire Department is investigating how the fire started.

The EPA says the pile of scrap, that’s nearly the size of a football field, needs to get smaller before another fire happens again.

KRDO called the owner of the scrap yard, but hasn’t heard back from him yet.