You do have to wonder about zoning laws in Rome. Is there any city in the US that would allow a junkyard to be that close to a museum/cathedral/government building?
How close was it? Hard to judge distance from a picture, and I never saw numbers on distance.
Edit: Fire was on Via Mattia Battistini according to this article. Doesn’t look that close on Google maps. But I’m not familiar with the area, so can’t say for sure.