A jury found the City of Richmond, Cornerstone Trading Group and Seth Smith liable for nuisance and negligence in litigation stemming from the massive fire that sent black smoke over the Indiana city in April 2023. The verdict came in a case over a blaze that forced residents from their homes and left cleanup crews working for months.
The fire broke out on April 11, 2023, at the My Way Trading warehouse on NW F Street, according to Fox 59. My Way Trading operated a recycling business out of the site, and court filings reviewed by docs.justia.com describe the warehouse as containing large amounts of chipped, shredded and recycled plastics at the time it caught fire. The fire involved the plastics stored at the warehouse.
Smoke Plume Forced Evacuations Within a Half Mile
A massive plume of black smoke rose above Richmond as the fire raged, and concerns about hazardous material being released into the air led to an evacuation order for anyone living within a half mile of the site, Fox 59 reported. The fire burned for days — and according to a separate account from law.justia.com, it burned for more than a week before crews extinguished it. Cleanup at the site continued for months afterward, the outlet's reporting on the case notes.
The appellate record also describes the fire's reach extending well beyond the immediate area, alleging that it emitted noxious gases and hazardous particulates that spread across hundreds of properties. The Indiana State Fire Marshal ultimately ruled the cause of the fire as undetermined, according to WRTV.
Residents Alleged Years of Warning Signs
Richmond residents filed suit against My Way Trading and the City of Richmond, blaming the business owner for unsafe conditions inside the warehouse and blaming the city for failing to remedy those same conditions, per Fox 59's account of the case. Residents reported adverse health events from inhaling noxious gases and smoke, and they claimed the fire cost them income through property damage or an inability to get to work, the outlet reported.
WRTV's reporting notes that the City of Richmond had cited the property owner back in 2019 for fire hazards, including the storage of excessive plastic materials, insufficient fire suppression and roof damage. The facility itself sat on three separate properties — two of which the City of Richmond purchased in 2021, while the third was privately owned, according to the appellate court record.
Case Moved to Federal Court as Litigation Grew
The original lawsuit was moved to federal court, and the litigation only expanded from there. In April 2025, 176 Richmond residents sued the owners of the warehouse involved in the April 11, 2023, fire in Wayne County, Indiana Circuit Court over injuries and economic and property damages allegedly tied to the fire, the appellate filing states. Defendants then removed that case to federal court as a mass action under the Class Action Fairness Act.
Separately, a federal court approved a class action in September 2025 covering more than 2,000 Richmond residents displaced by the warehouse fire, according to WRTV — a larger and distinct group from the 176 plaintiffs named in the 2025 state-court filing. That class action was split into two groups, one for property owners and another for non-owners such as renters or displaced residents, the station reported.
Cleanup and Legal Costs Piled Up for Years
The financial fallout from the fire has stretched across multiple fronts. The Environmental Protection Agency said it had completed a project to remove hazardous waste from the site, according to Fox 59's earlier coverage of the litigation. The City of Richmond, meanwhile, spent $204,716 on outside legal fees tied to the matter between April 2023 and December 2024, WRTV reported.
The jury found Cornerstone Trading Group, Seth Smith and the City of Richmond liable for nuisance and negligence stemming from the fire. The broader class action covering thousands of displaced residents remains a separate piece of the sprawling litigation stemming from the 2023 blaze.
