An evacuation order affecting more than 1,000 people was expected to remain in place through Wednesday around a large industrial fire in an Indiana city near the Ohio border, where crews worked through the night to douse piles of burning plastics, authorities said.
Multiple fires, which began burning on Tuesday afternoon, were still ablaze on Wednesday in a 14-acre (5.5-hectare) property containing various types of plastics.
The materials were stored both inside and outside buildings at a former factory site in Richmond, 70 miles east of Indianapolis, Richmond fire chief Tim Brown said.
“There’s plastics inside buildings, there’s plastics outside buildings, there’s plastics in semitrailers that are throughout the grounds here at the complex, so we’re dealing with many type of plastics. It’s very much a mess,” Brown said.
Brown said a plume of smoke continued rising on Wednesday from the site and about 15 firefighters had remained in place overnight working to fight the flames, which he said are contained within the old factory site. He said those fires are “not under control by any means” but he is optimistic crews will make progress throughout Wednesday.
Between 1,500 and 2,000 people who live within a half-mile of the plant were told to leave after the fire began, said David Hosick, spokesperson for the Indiana department of homeland security. The fire’s cause remains under investigation.
Aaron Stevens, a Richmond police officer who lives six blocks from the plant, said he first heard the sirens on Tuesday before he saw the pillar of smoke from his backyard that blocked the afternoon sun. The smoke had an acrid odor and he said ash fell on his deck and backyard.
“It was blocking out the sun completely,” he said. “The birds were going crazy.”
State and federal regulators were at the scene to assess air quality and other environmental impacts at the site, which local officials said has been used to store plastics and other materials for recycling or resale.
Jason Sewell, the on-scene coordinator for the US Environmental Protection Agency, said the agency had been conducting roving air sampling outside the evacuation area and in parts of nearby Ohio, but no toxic compounds had been detected.
Indiana’s state fire marshal, Steve Jones, said on Tuesday: “The smoke is definitely toxic.”