I-TEAM: Documents show Richmond officials’ concern about plastics facility years prior to toxic fire

RICHMOND, Ind. — As many as 2,000 people have had to evacuate following a toxic fire at a plastics recycling facility in Richmond, Indiana.

New documents obtained by the I-Team show that the city has been worried about toxic fire breaking out at the property for at least four years.

Documents filed with city’s Department of Infrastructure and Development showed code violations were filed in regard to the property in August 2019. The violations said that an inspection showed the structure was dangerous and a public nuisance.

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In March 2020, a judge upheld clean up orders from the city of Richmond’s Unsafe Building Commission. In their decision, they wrote that “the evidence presented at the Unsafe Building Hearings, which is now part of the record in this cause, clearly established that the structures in which the Plaintiffs have an interest are unsafe to people and property; constitute fire hazard; [and] are hazard to public health.”

The Wayne County property records show the city bought two thirds of the land at a tax sale in 2021.

“We did that simply to stop the business and to stop the inflow of material so that we can mitigate these issues,” Richmond Mayor Dave Snow told the I-Team’s John Bedell.

After this week’s fire followed years of concerns from the city, Bedell asked the mayor if the city did all it could to prevent this from happening.

“I’ve had a lot of people reach out to me and say, you know, ‘if the city was aware that this was a hazard and the city took ownership of the property, then why not initiate cleanup sooner?’ And, you know, I won’t mix words about that at all. We operate on tax dollars and city government, and tax dollars should not be holding the ball when someone decides to be grossly negligent and leave a mess,” Snow said.

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When asked again if the city could have done more the prevent this, Snow said, “No, this is our process.”

“This is the city documenting our process of taking our appropriate actions to put the onus on him to clean up his mess. I feel we did our part, you know, short of redirecting tax dollars from city services and cleaning up someone else’s mess, which is a precedent I would never want to set,” Snow said.

The I-Team went to the office of the lawyer listed for the property owner in court documents, but he declined comment.

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