WEST PARIS — Applications for two town junkyard permits will be open to residents’ scrutiny at a public hearing Oct. 10.

 At its meeting Sept. 10, the Board of Selectmen voted to hold a public hearing for permits to allow Ernie Yap and Kalvin Mason to operate junkyards in the town.

West Paris Metals, the Maple Street scrapyard owned by Yap, captured statewide attention in mid-August when a fire ripped through a stack of junked cars, destroying 41 vehicles.

In the aftermath of the fire, selectmen and West Paris fire Chief Norm St. Pierre issued Yap with a list of required safety measures he needed to comply with in order to continue operation.

The blaze, which took firefighters from 12 towns almost five hours to put out, started when sparks from an employee cutting a snowplow frame from a pickup truck jumped to other vehicles in the crowded lot and quickly raged out of control.

In a letter to Yap, St. Pierre noted that firefighters had to remove multiple barrels filled with fuel and other flammable liquids sitting near where employees were cutting apart vehicles.

The regulations issued by St. Pierre also require Yap to organize a safety watch to monitor possible fires, cover flammable materials with fire-retardant blankets and move individual vehicles being worked on to a concrete pad away from other materials.

On Friday, Town Manager John White said it appeared Yap was conforming to the requirements laid out by St. Pierre and the selectmen. He said the selectmen intended to conduct a site visit of West Paris Metals before approving the junkyard permit.

The public hearing will be held at 5 p.m. Oct. 10 at the Town Office.

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