Scrapyard fire extinguished in Dartmouth industrial park

Crews have put out a fire at a scrapyard in the Burnside industrial park in Dartmouth, N.S.

The fire began late Friday morning and crews were packing up to leave at about 6:15 p.m. AT.

"Streets are all open and all restrictions are off. There's no smoke anymore," said Halifax Regional Fire and Emergency district Chief Pat Kline in a phone interview shortly after 6 p.m.

Kline said Environment Canada was at the site to monitor for any contamination. He said aboom was set up by the Bedford Basin to prevent any oil residue from getting in and that it will bewatched over the weekend.

"We've been looking, we haven't seen any real oil in the water runoff," Kline said.

Firefighters were called to the scrapyard at 11:15 a.m.By around noon, about a dozen trucks had arrived to douse the fire that spread to a pile of crushed cars.The fire let off whatsoundedlike explosionsas hydraulics overheated and burst, according to a fire official.

Police said nobody has been injured.

An emergency alert warning of poor air quality due tothe smoke wasissued for the area around 1 p.m. By 5 p.m., the Halifax municipality tweeted the air quality in the area had improved. The fire department said the smoke should be dispersed by 10 p.m.

Derrick Chatterton was loading his truck nearby earlier Fridaywhen he saw the smoke and heard what sounded like explosions.

"The smoke just started billowing more," he said. "So we got one of our guys from the shop to call 911."

He said the smoke started coming into the shop where he works on Moore Road and he and his coworkers closed the doors and windows.

The cause of the fire has not been determined.