Back in September, a fourth fire at the same recycling plant in Far East El Paso brought out frustrations from people in that neighborhood. County commissioner Carlos Leon said he was working to create a task force to hold property owners accountable and now he says that task force has become a reality. “It’s comprised of this office, the county attorney’s office, the public works office, so we’re all working together and the main drive is that we try to prevent these kind of fires,” said Leon.
Commissioner Leon said that he was hoping to assemble a task force within a couple of months. This followed the cleanup from the aftermath of a fire at the surplus metals plant in Montana Vista. We asked Leon for an update on the task force yesterday following a similar fire at a different recycling plant on the far east side. He said they have four inspectors but also want to get members of the community involved.
“So i think together along with the community, it is very important that we also involve them that they know what’s expected of them especially the business owners along those areas.” Leon said the inspectors cover a thousand square miles. He wants to hire at least two more inspectors to help with the workload.