EPA completes hazardous material cleanup from Richmond fire
Subscriber Benefit
As a subscriber you can listen to articles at work, in the car, or while you work out. Subscribe Now
The U.S Environmental Protection Agency has completed the cleanup of hazardous materials from last April’s massive fire at a warehouse in Richmond.
The agency said on its website that the city will now work to complete cleanup of all non-hazardous materials from the site.
A fire that began April 11, 2023, destroyed the former My Way Trading warehouse, owned by Cornerstone Trading Group LLC, after burning for several days. Debris was sent several miles away, including into parts of Ohio.
Plans for the cleanup were announced in October, and the city said in a news release that Cornerstone Trading Group declined to pursue the cleanup effort after receiving a liability letter from the EPA.
The hazardous materials were transported to “appropriate hazardous waste facilities” outside of the city.
The EPA said earlier this month that all potential asbestos-containing materials had been removed from the site, and all testing of both the ground and air came back negative for asbestos.
The city has not provided an estimated timeline for when the entire cleanup effort would be completed. The EPA said in February that more than 846 tons of scrap metal has been removed from the site and recycled.
The former factory site had been used to store plastics and other materials for recycle or resale when the fire broke out. Then-Mayor Dave Snow said the fire started in a tractor-trailer parked onsite and spread quickly.
Snow said at the time of the fire that the business owner had been cited multiple times and given an order to clean up the property, which was ignored.