Recycling company EMR sued by NJ after major fires
The state of New Jersey is suing a scrap metal recycling company after at least two major fires at junkyards allegedly led to hazardous conditions for nearby residents in Camden.
The lawsuit was filed on Monday, Jan. 12 and alleges that there were over a dozen fires since 2020 at junkyards owned by MR Advanced Recycling LLC, EMR USA Holdings Inc., EMR Eastern, and Camden Iron & Metal.
Together, these companies are all known as EMR located in Camden.
The complaint claims that the fires “filled nearby streets with smoke and air pollution, creating an ongoing public nuisance that has severely harmed the health and well-being of Camden’s residents.”
One of the biggest fires happened on Feb. 21, 2025, at the EMR facility located on the 1400 block of South Front Street in Camden around 5 p.m. and sent thick, black smoke billowing into the air.
Officials explained that the fire had started from a two-story pile of scrap material that was supposed to be town apart into smaller pieces.
That fire burned for over 12 hours before firefighters could officially extinguish it.
People who live near Camden’s Waterfront had told NBC10 two weeks after the fire that their concerns lingered after they were forced to evacuate from the area.
“We don’t want our neighborhood to burn down and we don’t want to get caught up with chemicals,” Camden resident Maria Davis has said.
Back in January of 2021, another huge fire at an EMR facility forced residents to evacuate and a nearby school to close because of smoke and metallic odors, the lawsuit says.
Residents had told officials that they heard explosions coming from the facility, according to the complaint.
The lawsuit accuses EMR of maintaining “hazardous conditions at its facilities” that “create a high risk of fires.”
The state of New Jersey is asking the Superior Court to order EMR to control the risk of fires at its facilities in Camden.
“In August, after months of working cooperatively, the City of Camden and EMR entered into a Memorandum of Understanding to provide a comprehensive framework for fire suppression at our Camden shredder at a cost of $6.7 million. It appears the current Attorney General is not aware of the MOU and EMR’s fire suppression investments. We look forward to working with the State of New Jersey to address the scourge of lithium ion battery fires plaguing recycling facilities throughout the country. More than 500 people work for EMR in Camden including 150 Camden residents. The safety of our employees and the Camden community residents is our number one priority,” a spokesperson for EMR wrote in a statement to NBC10.
