Heavy black smoke poured into the sky over Shelby, North Carolina on Tuesday after a fire broke out at Auto Parts U Pull & Scrap Metal, with the plume reportedly visible for miles around the Cleveland County community. The cause of the blaze and the extent of any damage remained unknown as crews worked the scene.
The fire was reported at the scrapyard, which sits on County Home Road just south of East Dixon Boulevard, or U.S. 74, according to Queen City News. Shelby fire crews were assisted by the Cleveland volunteer fire department in responding to the blaze, the outlet reported. As of Tuesday night, the station said it was still investigating how the fire started and the extent of the damage, noting the story remained developing.
A Familiar Scene at the Same Cleveland County Scrapyard
This is not the first time flames have erupted at the same business. On Nov. 7, 2020, a large fire tore through the scrapyard, sending a plume of smoke stretching for miles that residents across the area reported seeing, according to firehouse.com. That report placed the business, then referred to as Auto Parts U-Pull, on County Line Road just off U.S. 74 near a Golden Corral — a location description that differs from how the scrapyard's address was described in coverage of Tuesday's fire.
Firefighters from departments across Cleveland County battled the 2020 blaze, per firehouse.com. Cleveland County EMS received a call around 12:40 p.m. that day reporting that someone had been burned at the business. Accounts of the man's injuries differed: firehouse.com reported that an unidentified man was taken to Atrium Health-Cleveland with burns described as not life-threatening, while the Shelby Star reported that the man suffered third-degree burns on both arms and was being treated at a burn center in Winston-Salem, where he was expected to recover.
Conflicting Details on the 2020 Fire's Duration
How long the 2020 fire burned is also described differently across accounts. Firehouse.com reported that the blaze continued burning for more than an hour after the first firefighter arrived on scene, while the Shelby Star reported that eight fire departments from around the county battled the blaze for nine hours. The cause of that fire was never released, according to firehouse.com, with investigators still trying to determine what had initially sparked it.
Cleveland County Emergency Management Director Perry Davis told the Shelby Star at the time that the scrapyard's contents made the situation especially hazardous. “You had a lot of tires and petroleum-based products from the cars, it was dangerous,” Davis said, according to the paper.
Scrapyard Fires Have Cropped Up Elsewhere in the Region
Scrapyard fires generating heavy smoke have surfaced elsewhere in the Carolinas in recent years, though details of those incidents are limited. A 2025 fire at a scrap yard in Kernersville may have left smoke carrying potentially hazardous substances over some areas, Greensboro.com reported. And in Asheville, a scrap yard fire in September 2025 produced smoke visible from Interstate 26, prompting a hazardous materials team to monitor air quality and water runoff, according to WYFF.
For now, the cause and scope of Tuesday's fire at Auto Parts U Pull & Scrap Metal remain under investigation, with Queen City News continuing to dig into how the fire started and how much damage it caused. Hoodline will provide updates as more information becomes available.
