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First came the fire. Then came the rats.
On May 14, 2025, a fire at the E.L. Harvey and Sons waste transfer station on Shawmut Avenue released thousands of rats into the street and surrounding neighborhoods. The infestation blocked off streets, closed a playground, and prompted 20 rodent-related complaints in one day. The Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection ordered the facility to close and fined E.L. Harvey roughly $30,000 for failing to prevent the fire and ensuing outbreak.
One year later, the waste transfer station remains closed. To reopen, the facility must make significant structural repairs and must present a new rodent mitigation plan to local and state officials.
Neighbors in surrounding Ward 3 say the rats have largely subsided. But the memories remain.
“You couldn’t drive down [Shawmut Avenue] for weeks without squishing the rats with your tires,” resident Olivia Cabral said.
Where there’s trash, there’s fire
MassDEP inspectors first visited the E.L. Harvey waste transfer station two weeks after the fire. By then, the rat infestation had spread to the surrounding neighborhood.
State inspectors returned to the site eight times in three weeks, determining that the Shawmut Avenue waste transfer station had not taken adequate steps to prevent the initial rat outbreak. The New Bedford Health Department also visited the site “daily” until the rodent issue cleared up, New Bedford Public Information Officer Jonathan Darling said in an email.
Residents say the worst of the outbreak was over after one to two months. As of this week, E.L. Harvey has not yet presented a rodent mitigation plan to the MassDEP, the state agency confirmed.
The rat problem may never have escalated, however, if it weren’t for the fire.
According to an investigation by the New Bedford Fire Department, the fire occurred unintentionally when a worker was cutting materials with heavy machinery, Darling said. About half of the transfer station was severely damaged, and repairs are still ongoing.
The incident, the second fire at a waste transfer facility on Shawmut Avenue in three years, prompted increased scrutiny of a proposal for a new waste transfer station at the Parallel Products facility at 100 Duchaine Boulevard. The city Board of Health rejected that proposal in September, and board member Alex Weiner cited fire risks and a lack of rodent mitigation plan in his vote to deny the project. The decision is currently under appeal.
Fires at waste transfer facilities have been on the rise in recent years, largely driven by the increase in lithium-ion batteries entering the waste stream. These batteries, found in everything from toothbrushes to smartphones to vapes and e-cigarettes, can release flammable gases when exposed to high temperatures or when physically damaged. Airlines now screen for items with lithium batteries in their checked baggage due to the high fire risk.
A banner on E.L. Harvey’s website says the waste transfer station is closed “due to unforeseen circumstances.” E.L. Harvey did not respond to a request for comment by the time of publication.
On the tail end of the problem
Several residents said they had never seen a rat on their property — only on the streets and highway directly abutting the waste transfer facility.
Others now measure life before and after the Shawmut Avenue blaze.
Cabral, who lives on nearby Liberia Lane, said she avoided going out to eat in the area for months after the incident.
“It was disgusting,” Cabral said. “They even came out during the day, and we left the lights on at night when we let the dog out.”
Cabral’s dog is just over a foot and a half long, barely larger than the rats she said she saw around the neighborhood.
“They weren’t small rats,” Cabral repeated, holding her fingers 10 inches apart. “They were big rats.”
Mike Ouellette remembers seeing the rodents on the side of the highway for months after the initial fire.
“They attracted coyotes that would eat the remains,” Ouellette said. “And, this is gross, but they also attracted rats that would come to eat the remains of other rats.”
Melissa Mejias has lived south of the waste transfer facility for over 40 years, growing up in a house two doors down from the residence she now lives in on Ayer Street. She had seen rats around Shawmut Avenue even before last year’s fire.
“I saw one that was as big as a cat,” Mejias said. “I won’t go back there anymore.”
But until last year’s fire, Mejias said, she’d never had a problem with rats in her own neighborhood. Then, at the outbreak’s peak, Mejia dodged rats on a near-nightly basis, she said.
Mejias hasn’t seen a rat in the past few months, she said, but she and her husband still keep traps around the backyard for unlucky rodents.
“I don’t touch them,” she said, pointing to an ominous black box sitting in the grass. “That’s my husband’s job.”
Email Brooke Kushwaha at bkushwaha@newbedfordlight.org.
