Pensacola officials say they are exploring legal and code-enforcement options after a fire at EMR Southern Recycling drew 32 city firefighters into a 12-hour response — the fourth fire at the scrap metal facility in two years.
The fire broke out early Monday at the facility at 1000 S. Myrick St., near Bayou Chico. Fire Chief Ginny Cranor said crews were dispatched at 1:47 a.m. and arrived to find large scrap metal piles burning, dense smoke, and difficult access inside the facility.
“This fire required aggressive tactics and long sustained operations,” Cranor said Tuesday during Mayor D.C. Reeves’ weekly press conference.
Cranor said firefighters began setting up in less than 10 minutes and deployed 2,800 feet of hose. The main body of the fire was mostly extinguished by about 8 a.m., but crews remained on scene until 2 p.m. to contain hot spots.
The latest fire has sharpened City Hall’s concern over a facility that has now burned repeatedly.
“Four times in two years ... is not normal,” Reeves said. “That is certainly an outlier.”
Reeves said the city attorney’s office and code enforcement staff are reviewing what authority the city has over the facility, which he described as a private company operating on private property in a zoning district that allows that kind of use. He said the city also plans to send letters to company leadership in the Gulf Coast region, the United States and the company’s parent office, which he said he believes is in England.
“We're gonna understand every tool available to us ... to ensure that everybody who does business or lives in the city is a good neighbor,” Reeves said.
The city has not announced a specific enforcement action, and officials did not say Tuesday that EMR Southern Recycling had violated city code or environmental regulations. But Reeves made clear the city is looking for a more forceful response after repeated fires at the same site.
Scrap metal fires can be difficult to fight because heat and flame may be buried deep inside piles of crushed cars and recyclable metal. Cranor said the latest fire began in the center of a pile, which could make it impossible to determine the exact cause.
“We don't have a cause for the fire,” Cranor said.
She said the facility is required to remove fuel tanks and fuel lines, and firefighters did not encounter flammable liquids. Possible ignition sources, she said, could include lightning, a lithium-ion battery or combustible metals that heat up and sustain combustion.
Cranor said the facility used three cranes to move metal debris so firefighters could reach burning material. Moving the debris can also introduce oxygen into the pile, causing fire growth to accelerate even as crews work to reach the source.
The fire also tested changes made after a prior blaze. Cranor said that after a 2024 fire, the fire marshal’s office worked with EMR Southern Recycling to add off-site thermal imaging monitoring. That system detected heat and triggered the 911 call Monday morning.
But Reeves said faster notification does not resolve the city’s broader concern if the facility continues to require large emergency responses. He said the city had previously notified the company that getting water to the site is not ideal, a challenge that complicated Monday’s response.
“The fact that we have notified this particular company at this location that the ability to get water to their location is not ideal ... that is not new news to us nor to them,” Reeves said.
Cranor said crews had to create a sustained water supply by boosting pressure from one fire engine to another before supplying the ladder apparatus. Reeves said the scale of the response also affected the city’s ability to respond elsewhere.
“The taxpayers are paying for this,” Reeves said. “The taxpayers are paying for 32 people to go out there and to have their ... response times at risk as well.”
The response included the Florida Department of Environmental Protection and the U.S. Coast Guard. Cranor said FDEP had a representative on scene during fire operations, while the Coast Guard evaluated the waterway. Escambia County Emergency Management developed a smoke plume map, and city and county officials warned people with asthma or other respiratory conditions to avoid the affected area.
Cranor said the main smoke concern was particulate matter rather than a confirmed toxic release requiring a shelter-in-place order. She said FDEP indicated during the response that no surface water impacts were expected at that time. Booming was used to keep sheen from reaching Bayou Chico, she said, and the city planned to follow up with local and state partners.
Cranor said the department’s priorities were firefighter safety, community safety and limiting environmental impacts. But she said prevention is now the goal.
“Our main goal is to prevent a fire like this from occurring again, and we will explore every option to do that,” Cranor said.
That prevention question now extends beyond the fire department. Reeves said city officials are reviewing what oversight tools they have, while preparing formal notice to company leadership.
“I cannot sit idly by while we put another ... 32 firefighters for 12 straight hours out here,” Reeves said.
The city has not said what specific action it may take. Officials also did not provide a cost estimate for Monday’s response.
