Firefighters battle large fire at Granite City recycling plant

Firefighters have responded to a Granite City recycling plant fire that produced smoke you could see in St. Louis.

The fire is at Totall Metal Recycling on Missouri Avenue, according the Granite City Fire Department’s Facebook post urging residents to avoid the road, which was blocked by multiple fire trucks.

KMOV-Channel 4 reported the fire started at 4:20 p.m.

There were no immediate reports of anyone injured in the blaze.

In 2014, two Totall Metal employees died and a third was injured in an accidental explosion in the company’s plant at 2700 Missouri Avenue.

Rodolfo Romo, 46, of Fairmont City, and Tyler Muenstermann, 24, of Edwardsville, were killed when a mortar shell exploded at the Granite City plant that recycles shell casings on contract for the military, the Belleville News-Democrat reported in 2014.

The Occupational Safety and Health Administration gave the business a citation in 2015 for the following violation: “The employer did not furnish employment and a place of employment which were free from recognized hazards that were causing or likely to cause death or serious physical harm to employees.” The penalty was $7,000.

This story was originally published August 6, 2019 at 7:00 PM.