Early free fire works from Gold Metal Recyclers

From The Dallas Morning News

Early free fire works from Gold Metal Recyclers: "

Wow, not even a week after the City Council approved the new Gold Metal Recyclers plan to spiff up South Lamar and clean up the junkyard's image, lots and lots of fire trucks rushed to Gold Metals today to put out a blaze. I counted at least eight Fire Department vehicles, including ambulances, hazardous materials vehicles and other cars and trucks. This is the second fire in less than a year at Gold Metal. There was another one in 2008. And back in 2003, there was a big six-alarm blaze that smoldered for days, prompting complaints from nearby residents that heavy industrial facilities like this simply don't belong in residential areas. But heck, they just live there. Who cares what they think, right Carolyn?

That's Carolyn Davis to the rest of you. She's the City Council member who last week won approval for the zoning change that will allow Gold Metal Recyclers and neighboring Okon Metals to change the heavy industrial side of their operations and move them closer -- yes, closer -- to the residential side of South Lamar than they already are. I wonder if free residential fire insurance comes with that deal.

What in the world is Gold Metal doing that would cause so many fires? It sure seems to me that a business with this kind of a record should face some kind of investigation or something. It seems kind of expensive for so many fire trucks to keep showing up on their property like this. I would recommend that Carolyn Davis launch some kind of investigation, but I think she's too busy counting all of the money in her campaign coffers from the owners of Gold Metal and Okon. We'll get back to her.

While I was taking photos of the fire trucks today, a police officer, Corporal L.A. Cruz, approached me to ask what I was doing. I was standing on private property, having been invited by the owner of that property. Cruz asked if I was from the news media, and I said yes. I reminded him that regular ol' citizens have the right to take photos, too, and they don't have to identify themselves or get permission from the police to do this, especially when they're on private property. Cruz reminded me that I was taking photos of private property, and, well, you know, the owners have rights too.

This wasn't going well. It turns out that Cruz was working off duty as a security guard for Gold Metal. He didn't volunteer that information until I challenged him by asking why he was walking around in uniform and full utility belt doing the bidding of a private company. He said he does this with everyone. Everyone, I guess, standing on private property, photographing something that is entirely visible to the public. 'On or off duty, I cannot tell you, uh. ... I don't want you to misunderstand me,' he said. No, no, no officer. No misunderstanding at all.

So I asked Cruz what caused the fire. He said a pallet full of titanium spontaneously combusted in the heat. Sounds a little dubious to me. If you're interested, just Google 'titanium fire ignition temperature' and see what I mean.

Folks, I repeat: Hazardous, polluting, noisy, obnoxious, heavy industrial facilities do not belong in residential areas. Does it take another six-alarm fire for the City Council to get this message?

"