Wholesale recycling centers such as Franklin Iron & Metal Corp. purchase and process automobiles, appliances and other metals and alloys for recycling.
Franklin Iron’s automobile shredder is capable of processing about 100 tons of metal an hour, or more than 530 cars a day, Wiseman said.
Wiseman is vice president of Industrial Services of America, a recycling company in Louisville, Ky., that operates the same type of shredder as Franklin Iron. The shredder costs several million dollars, he said.
Franklin Iron General Manager Greg Clouse declined to be interviewed Friday. However, a spokeswoman for the company issued a statement from the company that praised the Dayton Fire Department for their efforts to put out the fire and the company’s employees.
Franklin Iron is a privately owned company started in 1960, according to the Dayton Better Business Bureau, which gave it an “A+” rating.
Debra and Jack Edelman of Richmond, Ind., became owners in 1984, said Beth Mehlberth, a company spokeswoman. Jack Edelman is president; Debra is vice president, secretary and treasurer.
The company has two other locations in Dayton and one in Springfield, according to its website.
Franklin Iron received a permit in August 2005 from the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency to install a scrap metal shredder and separation system for metal salvage operations.
The permit requires Franklin Iron to remove all mercury switches and combustible fluids before processing.
“We go through the car, make sure the gas is out, make sure the Freon is out of the air-conditioning system, check it for mercury switches and do everything we can do to make the car safe for us to run through the shredder, and environmentally correct to run through the shredder,” Wiseman said.
Once a car is run through the shredder, “the pieces are roughly the size of your fist or smaller,” he said. Typically, those materials are sent to smelters to be melted into new products.
Dayton Police filed six incident reports since January 2009 for the 2015 E. First St. location, all of which involved suspected metal or property theft. The Dayton Fire Department filed 10 incident reports for that address since May 2009.
Franklin Iron is a member in good standing of ISRI, Wiseman said.
Contact this reporter at (937) 225-2419 or dlarsen@DaytonDailyNews.com.
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