Camden, New Jersey, fire at scrap yard brought under control, still producing smoke

Añadido: 2026-06-01

[00:00:00]Breaking right now on CBS News [music] Philadelphia Chopper 3 showing huge plumes of smoke still seen across Philadelphia and South Jersey this [music] morning as firefighters remain at the scene of this scrapyard fire in Camden. We are live at [music] that scene with the very latest. Good morning everyone. I'm Jan Carabeo. Janelle Burrell has the day off. This is not the first time a fire has erupted at this facility. CBS News Philadelphia's Brandon Goldner is live for us at that scene with the very latest this morning.

[00:00:32]So, what do we know now, Brandon? Good morning.

[00:00:35]>> Good morning, Jan. We do know now that the fire is under control, but you can still see we've got a lot of black smoke that is coming from up here and we had been seeing earlier cranes working through here and we have one right now trying to dig through all the scrap to get to where the fire is located. Take a look Chopper 3 right now over the scene and you can see how large this cloud of smoke is and one of the things we've been learning about is that neighboring areas, Philadelphia as well as neighborhoods in Camden County, they have been warning people who live there to be on the lookout for this smoke that is rising up and depending on wind conditions, it may end up spreading to those communities. And one of the things we've been hearing about a lot is that this particular facility, EMR, this is that Camden scrapyard where we have done many reports previously about fires that have happened at this place. In fact, our coworker Eva Anderson actually did a story a few weeks ago about the fire suppression system at this facility that they debuted that's supposed to use infrared cameras and hoses to spray down any fires that emerge. And if we can show the drone video that we have from a viewer and you can see that it appears to be working, the suppression system spraying down the areas where this fire is happening. And at one point earlier in the morning, you could see the flames towering over that pile of scrap. And the owners of EMR, they have said that this This the result of lithium ion batteries getting into the scrap and once it gets crushed up it causes these fires to happen but neighbors have expressed frustration especially when it comes to concerns about health, air pollution as a result of some of this smoke and the fires that they have seen repeatedly. The company has gotten in trouble with the New Jersey Attorney General's office who has criticized claiming that the company isn't doing enough for fire suppression and the company also arguing that they are doing what they can especially when it comes to this ongoing issue with the lithium ion batteries but take a look right now live out here while on the ground you can see that smoke still pouring out from this area and it's been going on for a few hours though the fire department is saying that it is under control and we're getting sound right now from the fire department as we speak our Carl Burton is talking with firefighters right now and we'll hopefully get that info to you soon once we get that but take a look right now.

[00:02:46]Oh and we do have sound let's take a listen right now to what Camden Fire Department is saying about what has happened here. Take a listen.

[00:02:52]>> Crews got on top of it right away. It's deep seated so we we we got to work with EMR to kind of pull some of the pile apart just so we can get to the bottom of where the fire is located.

[00:03:04]>> And we've been seeing that all morning you can see the green crane right here and one of the larger green and blue cranes right here just really pulling up as much scrap as they can from underneath trying to get to where the fire is and again even though the fire is under control you can still see the smoke pouring out at this time. Now we're going to continue to get additional information about how long we could be seeing the smoke and any potential health effects as well as any potential evacuations as well. We spoke to one resident who came here who says she hasn't been evacuated yet but it remains a concern for neighbors seeing this once again. Back to you Jan.

[00:03:38]>> Scrapyard fires very tough to fight because of all of this stuff that is there. Okay Brandon that work continues appreciate that update.