EMR sues city of Camden over junkyard license suspension after 2-alarm fire

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EMR, a scrap metal recycling company, sued the city of Camden on Monday over the suspension of the junkyard license for its metal shredding facility in the Waterfront South neighborhood earlier this month.

The city suspended the license and ordered the company to cease operations at the shredder in response to a two-alarm fire at the site May 29. More than a dozen fires have broken out at EMR’s facilities in Camden since 2020.

In the complaint filed in New Jersey’s Superior Court on Monday, EMR’s lawyers called the license suspension “groundless.” The company said the city suspended its license “without notice, a hearing, an opportunity to be heard.”

The city “has deprived EMR of its rights to procedural due process under Camden City Code, the New Jersey Constitution, and the United States Constitution,” the complaint reads.

The New Jersey Office of the Attorney General sued EMR in January, listing at least a dozen fires at its Camden facilities since 2020 and claiming the company had failed to mitigate fire risk. Three Camden residents filed a class action lawsuit against the company the day before the May 29 fire, claiming that years of smoke, odors and other emissions coming from the company’s facilities have interfered with residents’ use of their homes, The Jersey Vindicator reported.

A four-alarm fire at EMR’s shredder in February 2025 prompted roughly 100 residents to evacuate their homes and left some nearby residents with lingering concerns about their health. 

In its suit against the city of Camden, EMR blames the fires in the last five years on the “illegal and prohibited disposal” of flammable lithium-ion batteries, which are present in a range of consumer products including electric cars, e-bikes and electronics.

Hours after the fire May 29, city, county and state elected officials called on the U.S Environmental Protection Agency, state Department of Environmental Protection, Camden County Health Department and other agencies with jurisdiction over the facility to shut it down.

“We will no longer allow shelter in place alerts to go out because of another mishap in this scrap metal operation,” a joint statement issued by Camden County Commissioner Jeffrey Nash, City of Camden Mayor Victor Carstarphen, state Sen. Nilsa Cruz-Perez, Camden City Council President Angel Fuentes and Camden City Councilman Arthur Barclay read. “Enough is enough, we’ve heard the same stories before about lithium-ion batteries and their dangers, but that story line is old and irrelevant at this point.”

In the lawsuit, EMR asked for the court to declare the license suspension null and void. The company also asked to be given “adequate notice and an opportunity to be heard” prior to any license suspension or compensation.

A Camden city spokesperson did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

EMR warns layoffs are coming if suspension continues

The license suspension has cost the company roughly $10 million in lost revenue and operational costs since it was issued June 4, EMR said in its complaint. The company had voluntarily paused operations at its shredder following the May 29 fire.

EMR argued that the city’s action will ultimately hurt workers, who the company says it will lay off if the suspension continues. EMR employs 535 people across its corporate headquarters and five industrial sites in Camden, including the shredder. According to the company, 191 of those employees live in Camden.

“The suspension also affects EMR’s workforce, including employees who depend on continued operations for their livelihoods – many of whom are residents of the City of Camden – that will unfortunately suffer layoffs should the Facility remain shutdown,” the complaint states.

But the suspension has been a relief for some residents. During a Camden City Council meeting last week, Waterfront South resident Kristin Schrum said she has felt less fearful since the shredder has been paused.

“If a fire truck goes by, now I do not have to look out the window to know that it’s not going to EMR,” she said.

EMR claims no ‘objective evidence’ that the latest fire threatened public health

The notice of suspension that the city issued to EMR points to the two-alarm fire May 29 as the grounds for suspension.

“The resulting smoke, airborne discharge of hazardous materials, noise, and overall disruption caused by the fire created a condition that is harmful, offensive and obstructive to the reasonable use and enjoyment of property and constitute an emergency endangering the health and safety of Camden City Residents,” read a notice provided by the city to WHYY News.

The morning of the fire, the city sent a notification through its My Camden NJ App encouraging residents to “remain indoors and avoid airborne particulates/smoke which remain in the air.”

But EMR said in its lawsuit that the company has “not received any air monitoring data, sampling results, evacuation notices, or other objective evidence demonstrating that the May 29, 2026 fire caused harmful off-site impacts or conditions constituting an immediate threat to public health or safety.”

Camden County spokesperson Dan Keashen told WHYY News on May 29 that smoke from the fire caused fine particulate pollution, which is linked to lung and heart issues, to become “extremely elevated” in some parts of the Waterfront South neighborhood, but did not immediately provide the results of the county’s air monitoring. Keashen said in a text message on June 8 that the air monitoring report from that day was “still being worked on.”

EMR says it followed city’s direction under memorandum of understanding

Following the four-alarm fire at EMR’s shredder in 2025, the city of Camden announced it had negotiated a memorandum of understanding with EMR, which included commitments from the company to install a new fire suppression system, ramp up inspections to weed out fire risks from incoming material, and limit the height of its material piles.

EMR said in its lawsuit that it is complying with the agreement. The company completed the new fire suppression system, which consists of water cannons that can be automatically activated and guided by heat sensors, earlier this spring. The system cost around $3 million, according to EMR’s complaint.

“EMR relied, to its detriment, on the expectation that completing these substantive changes would bring the Facility’s safety protocols in line with Defendant’s expectation and govern EMR’s relationship with Defendant,” the complaint reads.

The fire suppression system partially malfunctioned during the May 29 fire, Camden fire chief Jesse Flax said that day, with one water cannon initially failing to activate. But the system did help contain the fire, Flax said.

A consultant EMR hired to investigate the May 29 fire recommended several changes to the fire suppression system and the company’s operational procedures, according to the complaint. EMR said it appealed the license suspension and asked the city to allow it to resume operations at the shredder starting June 15, pending implementation of these measures, but it had not been granted permission to resume operations.

EMR argued that the MOU set expectations for the continued operation of the facility. The company entered into the agreement “in reliance on a cooperative remediation framework rather than cessation of operations,” the complaint reads.