Too many possible sources to determine cause of AIM fire, engineers hired by company conclude

The engineering firm hired by American Iron & Metal to investigate the massive fire that erupted at its Saint John scrapyard in September was unable to determine the cause because there were multiple potential ignition sources and multiple possible fuels, according to documents filed in court.

The December report by T. Smith Engineering Inc. is among hundreds of pages of documents filed with the Court of King's Bench as part of AIM's bid to get a suspension of its approval to operate lifted.

AIM hired the firm to conduct an independent fire origin and cause investigation a week after the Sept. 14 fire burned for two days and prompted a city-wide shelter-in-place order because of hazardous smoke.

Two representatives from Ontario visited the waterfront site on the city's west side Sept. 25 and conducted a "forensic fire scene reconstruction," taking photographs and speaking to witnesses.

Employee smelled smoke

Travis Spellman, the nighttime shredder maintenance supervisor, told them he was working in the shredder building when he started to smell smoke around 1 a.m.

From the balcony, he said he saw smoke coming from the top of a pile of material that contains iron, located by the shredder, close to the railway.

Spellman quickly drove to the pile and noticed flames coming from the top of the middle section.

"The flame was small on top of the pile and at around 25 feet to 30 feet height from the ground," according to the report.

For the first one to two hours, the fire developed gently, then became out of control.​​​​​- Summary  of statement  by Travis Spellman, AIM employee

The scrap materials in the section were mostly crushed cars, said Spellman.

Spellman called 911 around 1:35 a.m., and notified another crew member to take AIM's water truck and start to put out the fire. Then he notified the site manager and met the fire department at the front gate.

He said he heard some "popping noise," but did not hear or notice any explosions during the fire.

"For the first one to two hours, the fire developed gently, then became out of control."

Took manager 45 minutes to locate fire chief

The operations manager, Clifford Wallace, told the T. Smith Engineering Inc. officials he got a call from port security around 1:30 a.m.

When he arrived around 2 a.m., he saw a flame about five feet high and "car-sized" in the mid- to upper level of the scrap metal pile, which was reported to be about 300 feet (91 metres) long and 60 feet (18 metres) high.

Wallace said he tried to instruct the Saint John firefighters already on scene to use other hydrants located on-site but it took him 45 minutes to find the fire chief.

He offered to help the fire department move some materials from the pile, he said, "but was declined."

Around 4 a.m., AIM employees were allowed to help move some materials, but they stopped after several attempts because the fire was still developing, said Wallace.

"They left it to the fire department to get the fire under control."

Check cars for batteries, fluids to 'best of their ability'

Within the area of the pile where the fire was first seen, there were "many cars, garbage that was in the cars, appliances, steel pipes and all kinds of materials with ferrous metal," according to Wallace.

AIM requires all batteries to be removed and fluid drained before scrap cars are delivered to their site, he said.

"They checked the cars to the best of their ability before dumping them into the pile."

AIM found car batteries left inside cars "several times," Wallace said.

In some instances, they had discovered smoke coming from car batteries, but Wallace said this was during the inspection phase after delivery to the yard and not after the material was placed in the piles.

A previous fire was caused by hot metal from the shredder dropping down onto combustible materials within the pile, according to Wallace, but the shredder was down for at least four weeks before the September fire, he said.

He also reported that the company's surveillance system had been hacked not long before the fire, so the cameras were not recording.

Metal completely melted, resolidified as block

Based on the witness statements, the report authors wrote that the only logical inference is that the origin of the fire was the pile of ferrous material in the section close to the railway.

When the T. Smith Engineering Inc. officials visited the site, most of the material from the pile had been moved and divided into smaller piles as part of the fire-fighting efforts.

The fire effects and patterns, and dynamics were also consistent with the fire originating from the pile of ferrous material in the section close to the railway, they said.

Some of the materials sustained minor damage on the surface, while others were "completely melted and had resolidified to thick metal block."

They examined the remains of multiple cars within the smaller piles, but found no car batteries and only a small amount of fluid leaking.

'Multiple potential ignition sources'

However, "multiple potential ignition sources" were found or potentially existed in the area of origin, the consultants said.

Among them, the remnants of several capacitors — used to store and release energy in vehicles — and the remnants of battery cells.

According to AIM employees and the site examination, it is possible the following fuels could also have been present in the area of origin, they said:

• Polyurethane foam from scrap cars.
• Plastic parts and casing.
• Rubber parts.
• Tires.
• Ignitable liquid vapour leaked from the scrap cars.

They attempted to use the process of elimination as part of the scientific method, but were unable to determine a definitive cause, they said, "as the hypothesis that the fire was caused by the failure of capacitors, the failure of battery cells, the failure of car batteries, and the spark from the contact between the metals igniting the initiable liquid vapours could not be disproved."  

The densely packed pile, however, allowed the fire to spread quickly, the report noted.

Likely cause rechargeable batteries, task force said

Arcon Forensics Engineers, hired by the joint provincial-Port Saint John task force that investigated the fire, was similarly unable to determine the exact cause and origin of the fire.

But it concluded the fire was likely started by an electrical ignition from the crushing and resultant failure of rechargeable batteries, either as vehicle components, or discarded within scrapped vehicles. Rechargeable lithium ion batteries were found at the fire site, it said.

The task force said future fires at the scrapyard are likely, and a "catastrophic" fire could happen again.

It also found that AIM's waterfront location, not far from hundreds of west side homes, is "entirely inappropriate given its now known hazards and risks."

"Explosions and fire have become a significant, recurring hazard since the operation of the industrial metal shredder began" in 2011, the task force said.

At least 181 explosions and 22 fires have been recorded, "with notable increases" to the frequency of occurrences.

On Sept. 19, Environment Minister Gary Crossman suspended AIM's approval to operate because he was "of the opinion that there was an unauthorized release of contaminants in contravention of Section 17" of the Clean Air Act.

Operations have remained suspended since then.

AIM is asking a Court of King's Bench judge to quash the suspension. The company contends it should have been given an opportunity to make submissions before the suspension, and that an order with a "narrower scope" would have been sufficient to satisfy the objectives of the act.