A huge black cloud of smoke rose over south Oklahoma City on Monday afternoon after a fire broke out at a recycling plant near Southeast 55th Street and High Avenue, just west of Interstate 35. Crews worked to get the fire under control as the plume filled the sky, and no injuries had been reported as of 3:25 p.m.
Same Address, Second Fire This Year
The Oklahoma City Fire Department was called to the facility Monday, according to KOCO, whose special projects producer and digital editor Addison Kliewer described the story as still developing as crews battled the blaze. Local media and emergency dispatch reports place the fire at the 5700 block of South High Avenue, the site of the Metal Check scrap recycling facility, according to SSBCrack News. Metal Check operates an industrial scrap metal yard in that stretch of south Oklahoma City, per the same report.
This is not the first time the address has gone up in flames. The same recycling facility caught fire on January 4, requiring the Oklahoma City Fire Department to deploy drones, aerial water streams, and specialized foam to extinguish burning scrap vehicles and pools of fluid, a blaze Hoodline previously covered. Hoodline also reported in March on a separate Oklahoma City scrapyard fire that sent heavy black smoke near the OKC Fairgrounds, underscoring how often these industrial sites have burned across the metro this year.
A Pattern Across OKC's Waste and Recycling Sites
Monday's fire is far from an isolated event in the city's industrial corridor. On August 20, a separate fire broke out at a Waste Management facility in northwest Oklahoma City, forcing workers to briefly evacuate, according to Waste Dive. Back in May, improperly discarded lithium-ion batteries ignited a fire that prompted an evacuation at an industrial plant in southeast Oklahoma City, KOCO 5 reported. And in July, a Waste Management garbage truck load caught fire in transit because of improperly discarded hazardous materials, forcing the driver to dump the burning debris directly in front of OKC Fire Station 31; firefighters extinguished it without reported injuries, according to the Oklahoma City Fire Department.
Scrap yards like the one on South High Avenue are especially vulnerable to ignition because they process end-of-life vehicles containing residual fuel, oil, and other flammable fluids alongside compacted metal and tires. Industry tracking data from Fire Rover recorded 50 reported fire events at North American waste and recycling facilities in just January and February 2022 alone, according to HUB Industrial Supply, reflecting a trend driven partly by crushed batteries and flammable vehicle fluids mixed into scrap loads.
Battery Fires and Air Quality Concerns Nationwide
Lithium-ion batteries have become a particular hazard for facilities like Metal Check. A national analysis by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency documented at least 245 confirmed fires at recycling centers and waste facilities across 28 states between 2013 and 2020 tied to lithium-ion batteries, and the agency noted the true number is likely far higher. The rapid rise of battery-powered consumer electronics has only increased that risk at scrap facilities in recent years.
The smoke itself carries its own dangers. Fires at scrap metal and vehicle recycling yards burn at extremely high temperatures and emit dense smoke containing toxic gases such as volatile organic compounds and fine particulate matter, according to EPA safety guidance, posing acute respiratory risks to communities downwind. That warning carries added weight in Oklahoma City this week: the Oklahoma Department of Environmental Quality issued a regional Air Quality Health Advisory for the metro area less than a week before Monday's fire, citing elevated ozone and particulate levels and advising sensitive groups to limit outdoor exertion.
City regulations require residents to drop off scrap metal, auto body parts, and large appliances directly at commercial recyclers such as Metal Check rather than placing them in residential curbside green recycling carts, according to the City of Oklahoma City. That system is designed to divert heavy scrap and auto bodies from municipal landfills, but it also concentrates flammable material at sites like the one that has now burned twice in the same year. As of Monday afternoon, the cause of the fire had not been determined, and it remained unclear whether the blaze would prompt any new fire-prevention or storage requirements at the repeat-incident facility.
