Liberty Tire Recycling, headquartered in Pittsburgh, has reached a settlement with the Kentucky Energy and Environment Cabinet over a fire at the company’s tire recycling facility in Jefferson County, Kentucky, in November 2014.
As part of the settlement, Liberty Tire has agreed to pay a fine of $40,000.
The settlement between the two parties also requires Liberty Tire Recycling to reduce the number of tires it stores at the site. While the company was bonded to have 100,000 tires and tire equivalent units at its location in Jefferson County, Dick Brown, a spokesman for the state’s Energy and Environment Cabinet, says the state estimates that more than 1 million tires were on site.
Brown says that following the fire the company has been able to reduce the number of tires on its premises to around 15,000 and has now started to bring in new tires to process.
To put out the fire, Liberty Tire smothered the smoldering tires with dirt. Both the state agency and the company say they are continuing to monitor the covered tire pile to ensure the fire remains extinguished.