AIM Scrapyard Saint John is one of the many locations of metal recovery and recycling franchises across the globe.
On AIM Scrapyard’s website, the company states, “with the growth and support of our 4000+ valued employees we have evolved into a successful and multifaceted company with a global footprint and over 130 sites worldwide.” Even with this grand statement, at the Saint John location, an incident occurred.
What happened?
On September 14th, 2023, at roughly 1:00 a.m. a fire started unknown to anyone on or near AIM Scrapyard Saint John until it was already too big to put a stop to it quickly. The fire at AIM Saint John went on for 40 hours (about 1 and a half days), leaving a toxic gas cloud and causing smoke to rummage through the city which caused a shelter-in-place order. Along with that a lot of people were worried about the water coming into contact with the toxins and running through the Saint John harbor.
What are the public’s opinions on AIM Saint John and the incident?
Since this accident there have been mixed opinions on whether AIM should be shut down or not, people have expressed that if AIM does shut down then there will be thousands of workers left without jobs and ways to provide for their families, but if it remains open then more accidents and injuries are a possibility of happening.
Mia Urquhart at CBC News states that “the task force examining the fire that burned for two days at American Iron and Metal in Saint John says future fires at the scrapyard are likely.” A review on Google says, “multiple deaths – injuries including loss of limbs – multiple explosions – now major fire cause CEO is too stingy to fix security cameras and too busy to answer why no camera for over 6 months – how much longer is Saint John NB going to allow this guy to make millions while killing our loved ones?”
What are UNB students’ opinions on AIM Saint John and the incident?
Fourth-year Business Administration student Walter Fuerniss says “The fire was inevitable. There had been a string of deaths there beforehand and many in Saint John were just waiting for the final straw.” After asking if the fire had directly affected him, and he said, “I would say not particularly but it was certainly a worry as I smelled it so heavily on campus that I had to go home early.”
A first year, Bachelor of Science student says the incident was an “extremely irresponsible situation, they’ve had many fires before and have not added extra safety precautions to minimize these events from happening.” The first year student shared their opinion on the company stating, “they don’t care about this city or their employees. I temporarily worked for them so I could afford food during the summer. I started in July 2023 and didn’t receive payment until around October 2023. I was told I would be paid a week or 2 after the job and then they gave no further updates about my payment. I had to contact another of their employees constantly for updates but the only answers I got were ‘it’s on its way’.”
After asking if the fire directly affected the first year student said, “my entire family is asthmatic, we live a bit far away from the AIM lot, but they still couldn’t go outside without having coughing fits even whilst wearing a mask. It affected their daily routine and health significantly”.
How did the government handle this?
Only four days after the fire, New Brunswick suspended the company from being able to open. After this, almost a month after the fire, CBC’s Shane Magee says “The New Brunswick government has revoked American Iron and Metal’s license for its Saint John port scrapyard.” (New Brunswick revoked license for AIM’s Saint John scrapyard after the fire). As of January 2024, there haven’t been any updates on if AIM has got its license back.
Where is AIM in 2024?
As of mid-January, AIM is facing four OSHA charges for a death that happened during a separate incident back in July of 2022. AIM pleads not guilty for all four charges, the four charges being that the company didn’t take every reasonable precaution to ensure the health and safety of workers and failed to properly train workers with any hazards in connection with the handling and disposal of equipment. For the charges, there is a three-day trial from March 4-6.
As made evident by the case of the Saint John fire, AIM did not ensure that work was competently supervised and that supervisors had sufficient knowledge in matters that are necessary to ensure the health and safety of the employees.
