{"id":2149,"date":"2026-07-07T10:11:05","date_gmt":"2026-07-07T10:11:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/corporate-movers-usa.com\/?p=2149"},"modified":"2026-07-07T10:11:05","modified_gmt":"2026-07-07T10:11:05","slug":"exploding-lithium-ion-batteries-are-blamed-for-fires-in-area-junkyards-and-drop-in-port-traffic","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/corporate-movers-usa.com\/?p=2149","title":{"rendered":"Exploding lithium-ion batteries are blamed for fires in area junkyards and drop in port traffic"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>\n<div>\n<div><audio><\/audio><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>Scrap metal, one of the Philadelphia area\u2019s biggest shipping products, has been piling up in area scrapyards since June 4 when Camden officials closed EMR USA Holdings Inc.\u2019s metal-shredding facilities after the latest in a series of fires affecting the region\u2019s million-ton-a-year scrap shipping industry.<\/p>\n<p>Read more <a href=\"https:\/\/corporate-movers-usa.com\/?p=2147\">Meet the All-Stars: What to know about baseball\u2019s best coming to Philly<\/a><\/p>\n<div><\/div>\n<p>Scrap dealers, faced with bulging inventories, blame the fires on the increased use of lithium-ion batteries \u2014 not so much large car batteries but the increasingly ubiquitous, highly combustible smaller batteries slipping into landfills from lawn mowers, construction tools, \u201csmart\u201d infrastructure, and household appliances.<\/p>\n<div><\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<p>The two-alarm May 29 fire, following a four-alarm Feb. 21, 2025, blaze that sent 100 neighbors fleeing for shelter, is the latest in what Camden code enforcement director Gabriel Camacho said have been up to a dozen \u201charmful, offensive, or obstructive\u201d blazes at the Camden yard, which is at 1400 S. Front St. near the city\u2019s Beckett Street Terminal.The fires spread smoke and hazardous materials. <\/p>\n<div><\/div>\n<p>Camden officials in statements on the fire have focused on the effects, not the causes, of the fires.<\/p>\n<div><\/div>\n<p>EMR CEO Joseph W. Balzano, whose company sued to reopen, has agreed in a proposed settlement to pay the city $4.5 million up front and $2.2 million over the next five years, plus more for community and facility upgrades, so EMR may reopen. The deal has been  and criticized by some neighbors and activists. <\/p>\n<div><\/div>\n<p>City Council is scheduled to review the proposal at a meeting Tuesday evening. <\/p>\n<div><\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<p>EMR, including its offices and auto-parts business as well as its recycling facilities, employs 575 workers \u2014 almost 200 are Camden residents \u2014 including members of the Teamsters union.Some workers operate shredding and sorting machinery and haul old iron and steel to the South Jersey Port Corp.\u2019s nearby pier, which is named for Balzano\u2019s late father, who headed the port. <\/p>\n<div><\/div>\n<p>EMR shreds and ships steel from smaller dealers, some to foreign users, but most of it, in recent years, to U.S. electric steel mills and other industrial recyclers. <\/p>\n<div><\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<p>\u201cWe haven\u2019t laid anyone off \u2014 our people are like family \u2014 but we are getting to the end of our rope,\u201d Balzano said last week. <\/p>\n<div><\/div>\n<p>Competing terminals at the port in Fairless Hills, Bucks County, and in Newark, N.J., have picked up some of the business, he said \u2014 at a higher price, including the cost of trucking scrap a longer distance. <\/p>\n<div><\/div>\n<p>England-based European Metal Recycling Ltd. acquired and began operating the Camden site since it purchased the former Camden Iron &amp; Metal in 2006. <\/p>\n<div><\/div>\n<p>Scrapyard officials say they tracked the latest fire to a discarded lithium-ion battery, a factor in what they say is a surge of scrap fires. <\/p>\n<div><\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s the biggest issue all recyclers face,\u201d Balzano said. \u201cRegulations need to be put in place that keep these batteries out of commerce.\u201d<\/p>\n<div><\/div>\n<p>The batteries are used in items like stoves, washing machines, dryers and \u201cthings you wouldn\u2019t think of like light ballasts or guard rails,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n<p>Read more <a href=\"https:\/\/corporate-movers-usa.com\/?p=2145\">Philly police ID officer and man he fatally shot outside St. Christopher\u2019s Hospital for Children<\/a><\/p>\n<div><\/div>\n<p>\u201cJust last week we had 440 people in a Zoom meeting about lithium battery fires. Since then, you had Doylestown Recycling and another facility in Long Island burn to the ground,\u201d said John Thomas, president of the national Construction &amp; Demolition Recycling Association. <\/p>\n<div><\/div>\n<p>\u201cNine times out of 10, it\u2019s a power-tool lithium-ion battery,\u201d he said. \u201cContractors throw \u2018em in the dumpster, not realizing it\u2019s hazardous once it\u2019s broken out of its original container. Lead-acid batteries, not such a big deal. But lithium batteries burn so hot, you almost have to let \u2018em burn out.\u201d<\/p>\n<div><\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<p>New Jersey lawmakers have been advancing bills to better track lithium-ion batteries and to regulate scrap recycling yards.<\/p>\n<div><\/div>\n<p>Burns Co., a building-materials recycler whose yard covers more than 12 acres in Philadelphia\u2019s Hunting Park section, needed city help putting out its most recent lithium-ion battery fire in May, said Allen Burns, who runs the family-owned yard, which employs nearly 100.<\/p>\n<div><\/div>\n<p>He points to scorch marks on a concrete-block wall at the facility. <\/p>\n<div><\/div>\n<p>\u201cIt took 30 firemen five hours to put out the fire,\u201d Burns said. \u201cThey looked on our camera system, dug down, and found a lithium-battery-powered tool. There must be a landfill fire every day from a lithium battery.\u201d<\/p>\n<div><\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<p>Burns said the Camden shutdown has backed up shipments at yards around the region.<\/p>\n<div><\/div>\n<p>\u201cWe have had to bail metal to conserve space,\u201d he said. Disposal costs are up. <\/p>\n<div><\/div>\n<p>David Wiechecki, owner of International Scrap Iron &amp; Metal in Chester, said, \u201cYou don\u2019t want to leave [lithium-ion batteries] laying in your yard. It\u2019s a real problem.\u201d<\/p>\n<div><\/div>\n<p>\u201cYou go over the loads with a fine-tooth comb, but people who want to sneak them by will do it,\u201d he said. \u201cMeanwhile, prices are down because export demand is down,\u201d leaving scrapyards with more iron and more fire concerns. <\/p>\n<div><\/div>\n<p>Lithium-ion battery fires were blamed last year for burning dozens of decommissioned SEPTA buses and led to the end of SEPTA\u2019s Proterra electric-bus program. <\/p>\n<div><\/div>\n<p>Thomas said his group and national scrap-metal and waste-disposal trade associations want federal legislation forcing manufacturers to pay lithium-ion battery recycling fees. <\/p>\n<div><\/div>\n<p>\u201cBut they don\u2019t want them back. It\u2019s cheaper for them to buy virgin material,\u201d he said. \u201cSo there\u2019s a big tug of war in state legislatures with the manufacturers. In Pennsylvania, we had a bill stalled in the state Senate just in the last 10 days with no action.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Read more <a href=\"https:\/\/corporate-movers-usa.com\/?p=2143\">Over 36 million people watched the U.S.-Bosnia World Cup game, a record for soccer<\/a><\/p>\n<div><\/div>\n<p><i>Staff writer Frank Kummer contributed to this article.<\/i><\/p>\n<div><\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Scrap iron, one of the Philadelphia area&#8217;s biggest exports, is plagued by battery fires, yard operators say.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2148,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2149","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.7 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Exploding lithium-ion batteries are blamed for fires in area junkyards and drop in port traffic - 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