COLUMBUS, Ohio – City inspectors in November determined that a commercial recycling building at the site of Friday’s four-alarm fire was unsafe, and that repairs had not been made.
READ MORE: In the Columbus Dispatch
That building at Columbus Pallet Recycling at 611 Marion Rd. had been damaged in an October fire. The order from building inspectors said that the fire had severely damaged one exterior wall, and that structural components, including steel framing and exterior sheeting, had been damaged because of heat and fire.
The owner had appealed the unsafe order on Feb. 5, and city building inspectors verified on April 24 that the building wasn’t being used, said Scott Messer, director of the city’s Department of Building and Zoning Services.
Meanwhile, court records show that the South Side pallet recycling operation that exploded in flames on Friday has been operating for at least three years without proper zoning or a permit to operate a salvage yard.
Columbus prosecutors filed a civil complaint against business owner Ebrahim Hooshiarnejad on March 6, 2013 after an inspector on Nov. 9, 2012, visited the facility. That inspection after a May 1, 2012, zoning violation order was issued, according to the complaint filed in Franklin County Environmental Court.
“We filed a complaint, got no answer,” Assistant City Attorney Steve Dunbar said.
City prosecutors filed a motion for default judgment against Hooshiarnejad, which a judge granted on April 25, 2013. But on May 15 that year, another judge vacated the judgment because the city and the owner “are involved in communications, in an effort to work through the case.”