Air quality monitoring underway after scrapyard fire in Darby Township

In Delaware County there is a massive fire. The air quality is bad. You're going to notice it right away when we check in with Chris O'Connell. Good afternoon to you. I know, Chris, you are... I think I see you. I see you in a mask and that is because it's really, really difficult and dangerous to breathe where you are right now, correct? Yeah, we're on the corner, Jen, Watch out, Elaine. 84th and Lindbergh Boulevard here in southwest Philadelphia. You can hear the fire department here. This is a mutual aid event where the fire is now. It is an apparent junkyard fire. Behind me, you can see where we're at. The actual fire, Jen, is on 3 Industrial Boulevard in Darby Township, the Sharon Hill section of Darby Township. It appears from what we can see is a junkyard fire. From our records show that facility is owned by EMR. You may be familiar with that company. We're still trying to confirm it. It is the same recycling company that had some fires in the Camden area and still a point of discussion in terms of their operating license in Camden. But as you can see now, the fire... I'm assuming we're seeing some of our chopper footage because that's the best vantage point of this fire. A choking smoke filled this whole area. We're in the Eastwick section of southwest Philadelphia, where people that we talked to say, this is not all uncommon. This is not a rare occurrence. Those are the people who are breathing in all this choking smoke. I will say when we were here about an hour ago in this neighborhood, the smoke wasn't as bad. But as we came back here, it was very tough to get around. As we came back here, the wind must have shifted. Now a haze of smoke fills this neighborhood in the Eastwick section, Sharon Hill, Darby Township. If you know that John Hines Wildlife Reserve, that's right across the street. Some of the property of this fire abuts the National Wildlife Reserve here at the John Hines Preserve. Lots of traffic, Jen, is shut down in this area. The good news, it looks like fire crews from all over Delaware County, including we saw Philadelphia, are here on scene trying to put this fire out. They are still responding as we speak. But just by the looks of the smoke and the fire, it looks like it's starting to get under control. But with these junkyard fires, from what we've seen recently, Jen, they begin with lithium batteries that are recycled or in a junkyard. Especially now with the heat we have, probably that could have been a contributing factor to this fire. But once again, this is just in the beginning stages. We're still trying to confirm some information. Other than we know that this fire is still burning, a haze of smoke still hangs over Southwest Philadelphia and Darby Township. It couldn't come at a worse day. We're having heat indexes of 110, 115 degrees. Later today, we're supposed to get a lot of that wildfire smoke from Canada. I can tell you that Delaware County has done and is continuing to monitor the air quality. They're saying there's no action right now that folks need to take. But just being down here, stay inside if you're in this area. You don't need to hear me to tell you that. You walk outside, you could just see and smell and taste this smoke here in Southwest Philadelphia. As fire crews continue to fight this fire, we'll try to get some more information. There's a staging area nearby. Hopefully, we'll get some more information, Jen, as this fire continues to burn. I don't want to leave you out there unnecessarily, but I just want to ask one question about the lithium batteries. Is it something that's in a car when it's left there? Or are people recycling it independently like they recycle other items? First of all, Jen, let me just say on the record, we're not sure of any of this. We've been around enough to know these junkyard fires, especially we know the one that started in Camden that we believe is owned by the same company, was started by a lithium battery. I'm not sure if they're here to recycle them. We do know photographer Elaine here, who's on the camera, tells us she remembers signs up on facilities like this saying no lithium batteries. They're not accepted at a facility like this. I'm not sure the regulations, but I do know it has been a real point of contention in Camden on this very company. We've reached out to that company, so far no response. Something like this, the folks that live here say they are not at all surprised at a junkyard fire. As a matter of fact, one woman who's been here for 40 years, one of her neighbors showed up to her and she goes, here we go, another junkyard fire again. It is not all uncommon here in the Eastwick neighborhood. Thank you for the reporting. You and Elaine, the photographer, she had a pretty busy day yesterday on that red carpet. Again, triple temperatures. So get in, get safe, and thanks for the reporting. We appreciate it. Thanks, Jen. Okay, we're now going to go over to the president.