PROVIDENCE – Firefighters on Thursday morning were still at the scene of a fire that broke out late Wednesday night at an Allens Avenue scrap metal operation that has been the focus of a long-running legal dispute with state authorities. 

Crews with the Providence Fire Department were called to the riverfront site of Rhode Island Recycled Metals at 11:35 p.m. Wednesday for a fire that had started in a 100-foot by 100-foot pile of scrap, according to Fire Chief Derek Silva.  

He said they extinguished the majority of the fire overnight but were still at the property at 434 Allens Ave. in the morning, working with Recycled Metals employees to break apart the metal pile and ensure no material was still burning. 

Staff from the state Department of Environmental Management were called to the scene and determined that air pollution and runoff into the Providence River were not an issue, according to Silva. 

“We expect to be on scene for a few more hours,” Silva said in an email. “Fortunately, no one was injured.” 

The cause of the fire is under investigation. 

Scrap yard has been at the center of recent controversy

Recycled Metals most recently made headlines in March when the Providence Board of Licenses ordered the business to shut down for failing to have what the city says is the necessary license to operate.  

The company argues that it has the relevant state licenses and doesn’t need the city license. 

It’s just the latest chapter in Recycled Metals’ fight with authorities that has stretched on for more than a decade.  

Recycled Metals went into business in 2009, when it got the job of salvaging the Russian submarine Juliett 484, which had once served as the set of a Harrison Ford movie and, until it sank in a nor’easter, a floating museum in Providence’s Collier Point Park.   

The company had the submarine towed to the waters off its 12-acre property and soon brought in other deteriorating vessels. 

But DEM inspectors soon raised concerns that the business was discharging potentially contaminated stormwater into the Providence River and accused the company of other violations. 

After the company failed to institute stormwater controls and clean up the site, the DEM joined with the Attorney General’s office to file suit in state Superior Court. 

While there has been recent progress to improve the property, there is still a long way to go. 

This is a developing story and may be updated.