Man Charged In Connection With Deadly Fire At Elizabeth Waste Facility

UNION COUNTY, NJ — A business owner in New York was charged in connection with a massive fire at a Waste Management facility in Elizabeth, where one facility employee died in 2022, announced Attorney General Matthew J. Platkin on Thursday.

Mark Cadieux, 55, of Lynbrook, N.Y., the owner of a trucking and warehouse business, has been arrested and charged with first-degree aggravated manslaughter; second-degree manslaughter; second-degree violation or failure to perform a duty imposed by a law intended to protect public health and safety; second- and third-degree causing or risking widespread injury or damage; and numerous environmental hazardous waste charges.

The court ordered that Cadieux be released with conditions, and at his arraignment on July 3 he pleaded not guilty.

On or around May 10, 2022, Cadieux unlawfully threw away more than 9,000 pounds of extremely flammable dry shampoo aerosol cans into a dumpster that he rented in Linden, according to the indictment.

The dumpster was then taken to the Waste Management facility on Julia Street in Elizabeth.

"Within minutes of the aerosol cans being dumped out of the dumpster at the facility, a multiple-alarm fire broke out and resulted in the death of facility worker Czeslaw Solarz, 69, of Union Township," said Platkin.

The indictment alleges that Cadieux disposed of hazardous waste and he did not have authorization from the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection to dispose of the aerosol cans in this manner.

"This case provides a stark illustration of how the irresponsible and improper disposal of hazardous waste can have a clear, devastating and immediate impact on public health and safety," said Platkin. "This careless action resulted in a large quantity of highly flammable materials going into the waste stream, effectively sending the workers at this facility in Elizabeth a firebomb that was waiting to go off. And when it did, it had lethal consequences."

"Every worker at that Waste Management facility and every firefighter who had to respond to try to put out this multi-alarm fire had their lives put at risk by reckless, criminal behavior," said Derek Nececkas, Interim Director of the Division of Criminal Justice. "Our Environmental Crimes Unit will hold polluters accountable, particularly when their disregard for dumping laws leads to an outcome as egregious as this — a fatal, massive blaze in one of New Jersey’s most populous urban areas."

Cadieux faces a sentence of 10 to 30 years in state prison on the first-degree aggravated manslaughter charge and a sentence of five to 10 years in state prison and a fine of up to $150,000 for the second-degree charges.

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