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Baltimore County residents worried about health, air quality after recycling facility fire reignites

Health concerns arise following Dundalk recycling plant fire
Health concerns arise following Dundalk recycling plant fire 02:55

BALTIMORE -- Hot spots from a fire at a Baltimore County recycling plant reignited Thursday, and the Maryland Department of the Environment put out an alert about the air quality around the site.

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The initial blaze began around 6 p.m. Saturday, Jan. 18, at Owl Metals on 1936 Rettman Lane. A building partially collapsed due to the fire.  CBS News Baltimore

The initial blaze began around 6 p.m. Saturday, Jan. 18, at Owl Metals on 1936 Rettman Lane in Dundalk. A building partially collapsed due to the fire. An elderly man who lives in the area was hospitalized due to precautionary measures, BCOFD said. 

Crews worked on Thursday to fight those hot spots and they plan to return Friday. 

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Crews worked throughout the day to fight those hot spots on Thursday and plan to return Friday.  Baltimore County Fire

Neighbors concerned about health 

Fire officials said there was no fire threat to the area, but neighbors are concerned about their health.

"It has been super smoky. It was unbearable at times, especially in the morning," said Kelsey Evans, who lives across the street from the Owl Metals recycling facility. 

Evans has been sounding the alarm about the air quality since the three-alarm fire broke out Saturday night. 

"You can just taste it. It gets stuck in your mouth," Evans said. "Just like breathing it in burns your nose, burns your throat, makes your eyes water." 

The smell is still strong in the Baltimore County community nearly a week later. WJZ Investigator Mike Hellgren was at the recycling plant where the hot spots were evident. 

The Maryland Department of the Environment issued an air quality alert Wednesday and again on Thursday and said people in sensitive groups living near the facility should limit outdoor activities and everyone should limit strenuous outdoor activities. 

Evans said it was not enough. 

"I would like more information and to just be notified in a timely manner," Evans said. "I shouldn't have to sound the alarm for them to come out and test the air quality for them to say this doesn't look good. This doesn't smell good.

Evans continued, "We reached out Monday morning and were told the air quality was fine, that there was nothing to worry about. But then, we received the response from MDE earlier today saying there was an air quality alert. Why wasn't this put into place Monday? Why wasn't this tested on Monday when we brought up the situation about how bad the air quality was in the first place?"

Environmental response

MDE said weather conditions could concentrate pollution and wrote, "Conditions near the fire site can be expected to vary based on weather, the time of day, with higher concentrations expected evening through daybreak and the ongoing fire activity itself."

Evans told WJZ, "The wind plays a huge part in the smoke—when it's blowing down here is when we see it the most, but when it's blowing toward Essex, the people on the other side of the community are feeling the effects of the smoke today. Our biggest concern is how long this will take to put out and what is being done to prevent something like this from happening in the future."

She said neighbors have taken precautions. 

"We have a couple neighbors with some really small kids," she said. "One of our neighbors has a son who's affected by the smoke, ended up on a steroid medication to help. We also have another neighbor who is very asthmatic, they ended up evacuating to their parents' house until the conditions could be deemed safe."

Monitoring air quality

Fire officials have no exact timeline for putting out the hot spots. They said there was no fire threat to the community.

Air quality right now is moderate. You can track the monitoring sites here

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