Frequent fires at Columbus automotive scrap yard lead to questions of safety

COLUMBUS, Ohio (WCMH) — City records reveal multiple visits from firefighters and building inspectors to a Columbus automotive scrap yard, in the years leading up to a fire there Monday.

Monday’s fire at 1559 McKinley Ave. sent dark smoke into the sky, took dozens of firefighters hours to put out, and according to the Columbus Division of Fire, led to the destruction of equipment including boots and hoses.

Before the smoke had fully settled, firefighters said the fire at Galaxy Metals was an accident.

“Apparently one of the workers was in the process of removing a catalytic converter, and there was some open gasoline that was nearby,” said Battalion Chief Steve Martin. “The fumes from the gasoline came into contact with heat source and resulted in a explosion and fire.”

Karl Nading, who has worked next door at Edison Automotive for 36 years, believes the accident was preventable.

“Big, big thing is to remove the gas from the vehicles before any torching or anything is done, and have the vehicle properly distanced from the torch,” said Nading.

Nading showed NBC4 the vacuum used to suck fuel out of cars and keep it from spilling, before any parts are removed in a separate area. The area surrounding the vacuum had four fire extinguishers.

Nading questioned whether those same safety measures were in place next door.

“Everything they do—it seems like, you know, half—half-baked, so they can get whatever they want as quick as possible, process that car and get rid of it,” Nading said. “I mean, we’ve never seen anything like it. They were just running cars in and out of there faster than we could even buy a car.”

Reached by phone in Cleveland, Joe Immormino, the owner of Galaxy Metals, denied Nading’s allegations. He said safety measures were in place in his garage, and that the speedy process was the product of hard work.

1559 McKinley Ave. has been licensed as a junkyard for decades, changing hands between multiple tenants through the years. Nading said he and his boss noticed frequent fires when Galaxy Metals took over in 2020.

“It was like almost every week, you were seeing a fire pop up. Whether it was a minor fire—finally it was the big fires,” Nading said.

Columbus firefighters have responded five times to Galaxy Metals since October 2020, according to the agency’s records. Fires in February 2021 and October 2020 were marked as unintentional in incident reports. An incident report from a May 2021 fire says that one was intentionally set, and report from November 2021 describes the incident as a “good intent call,” a term used to describe false alarms.

Immormino said the fire in February 2021 was electrical, and that the auxiliary building that burned was never replaced by the property’s owner.

According to the incident report for Monday’s fire, the building’s smoke detector didn’t go off. The building also didn’t have an automatic fire suppression system.

After the fire, a building inspector visited Galaxy Metals and noted multiple environmental violations. In a notice dated Feb. 15, the Department of Code Enforcement, sent notices of violation to Solid Group, LLC, which owns 1559 McKinley Ave. The notices gives Solid Group five days to remedy some violations and 20 days to fix others.

The violations were largely related to disrepair and the accumulation of debris and flammable objects.

According to Cynthia Rickman, assistant director at the Department of Building and Zoning Services, the lot could lose its junkyard license if the violations are not corrected in time. She said the license is set to expire in April.

Crews were seen hauling tires away Friday. Immormino said he expects to have the lot cleaned up and compliant next week, but does not plan on reopening that location for business.

Code violations at 1559 McKinley Ave. pre-date Galaxy Metals, as records reveal several notices dating back to 2017 that include citations that the fire lane was too narrow.

The person who answered the phone at Solid Group declined to answer questions and abruptly ended the conversation.