West Virginia burns: Private profits over public safety in warehouse fire

Firefighters are fighting a massive fire at a plastics warehouse of Peoples Cartage in Parkersburg, West Virginia, while the surrounding community has been made to shelter in place as the state and federal governments monitor the air for noxious smoke. 

West Virginia Gov. Patrick Morrisey declared a State of Emergency for Wood County as pitch black plumes of smoke were seen across the Mid-Ohio Valley. The specific cause of the fire is reportedly not yet known, but there is strong evidence that Peoples Cartage neglected safety problems.

West Virginia Public Broadcasting reported that the West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection (WVDEP) had previously levied citations against Peoples Cartage in the aftermath of hazardous waste fires at the same facility in 2025. DEP agents found the company had failed to minimize the possibility of fire, improperly managed hazardous waste, stored waste without the required permit, maintained open hazardous waste containers and failed to properly label hazardous materials. The facility had also been cited over similar fires in 2020. (July 6)

Parkersburg has lived with this reality for generations

Eric Engle, chief steward of National Treasury Employees Union (NTEU) Local 190 and activist with Mid-Ohio Valley Climate Action, told Workers World: “Parkersburg is another tragic example in Central Appalachia, particularly in West Virginia, of a place where industry is permitted to be totally careless. It’s got to stop. This fire and the warehouse fire we suffered through in 2017 on the same stretch of road as Peoples Cartage were avoidable, man-made travesties. 

“We at Mid-Ohio Valley Climate Action — a climate and environmental nonprofit that has operated in the Parkersburg area for over 10 years — have deployed community air monitors that connect to the PurpleAir network across Wood County. I deployed six more monitors during the two days the Peoples Cartage fire burned. You can find the data at map.purpleair.com. 

“There must and will be accountability, and this cannot be allowed to happen again.”

Capitalism: an even bigger disaster than the fire

Defenders of capitalism often say the system “rewards hard work.” The opposite is true. Capitalism, like its name suggests, rewards ownership of capital — not hard work. 

Neither the workers at the facility itself nor the workers fighting the blaze, as well as those workers in public agencies remediating the disaster, will be compensated. The ones insulated from this disaster are the executives and Wall Street investors far removed from the scene. They will continue to profit as public tax dollars bail them out.