Atkore United Poly Systems Warehouse Fire Information
On Sunday August 6, 2023 the Albuquerque-Bernalillo County Air Quality Program, administered by the City of Albuquerque Environmental Health Department, became aware of a fire at the Atkore facility. The Program staff immediately began live monitoring the air quality, looking for spikes in particulate matter from our air quality monitors and potential changes in wind directions. The forecasting gave an indication of where the smoke plume could be moving and a proactive health alert was issued through Monday morning at 10:00AM with advice to avoid the outdoors. The wind blew the plume southeastward during the incident toward unoccupied property. As firefighters were combating the fire on Sunday, staff in the New Mexico Environment Department’s Hazardous Waste Bureau (HWB) provided technical guidance to Atkore that prompted them to quickly hire contractors to create berms that caught runoff from the firefighting effort and prevented its release into the environment. Thankfully, Albuquerque Fire Rescue (AFR) and Bernalillo County Fire Rescue were able to extinguish the fire before any change of wind could occur. While the origin of the fire has been identified the cause is still being investigated.
By Monday morning, the Program’s air quality monitors had not shown spikes of particulate matter from the fire. Coordination with AFR revealed the fire was mostly out and no significant amount of smoke was being emitted. Based on the monitored data and coordination with AFR, the Program determined it was safe for Albuquerque and Bernalillo County residents to be outside, therefore expiring the health alert. The Environmental Health Department is working with the State of New Mexico and the Environmental Protection Agency on the next steps for environmental assessments of the site.