An Indiana recycling plant that caught on fire on April 11 and prompted the evacuation of more than 2,000 people was cited in the past for being unsafe, according to officials in Richmond, Indiana.
Officials also said some 1,000 people are under evacuation orders.
An evacuation order affecting more than 1,000 people was expected to remain in place through April 12 around a large industrial fire as crews worked through the night to douse piles of burning plastics, according to authorities.
A representative for Wayne County Emergency Management Office told media outlets that the evacuation zone in Richmond affects about 2,011 residents. Officials said anyone downwind of the fire should shelter in place.
“The smoke is definitely toxic,” Indiana State Fire Marshal Stephen Jones told reporters on April 11. “We don’t want the residents in the smoke. As the wind changes, we may change the direction of the evacuations.”
The building is a former Hoffco-Comet Industries plant, which produced lawn and garden products before it was shut down in 2009, according to the U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency. Jones said the facility now has plastic recyclables.
During an April 12 press conference, Snow said the business that had operated at the property was called My-Way Trading. He didn’t provide further details about the business or the owner of the property.
Brown said the 175,000-square-foot facility was “completely full from floor to ceiling and from wall to wall” with materials.
“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 types of plastics. It’s very much a mess,” Brown said.
Jones told reporters on April 11 that “there’s a host of different chemicals plastics give off when they’re on fire, so it’s concerning.”
A U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) official, Jason Sewell, told reporters on April 12 that testing hadn’t identified toxic compounds, including styrene or benzene. Air quality monitoring and testing “24 hours a day” were implemented, Sewell said.
Aaron Stevens, a Richmond police officer who lives six blocks from the plant, said he first heard the sirens on April 11 before he saw the pillar of smoke from his backyard that blocked the afternoon sun. The smoke came with 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.”
Despite the evacuation warning, Stevens said he plans on staying put after recently suffering an injury. His sister, who lives at their childhood home, which is close enough to the plant to see the flames, came to stay with him to escape the smoke. Stevens said he plans on keeping an eye on the changing guidance regarding the smoke.
President Joe Biden, who has been visiting Northern Ireland and Ireland, spoke by phone to Indiana Gov. Eric Holcomb and offered his support and any additional federal assistance needed to respond to the fire, according to the White House.
EPA Administrator Michael Regan said the federal agency was working closely with its state and local partners in responding to and monitoring the fire. He said an EPA team would be collecting samples of debris in the area on April 12 “to determine whether asbestos-containing materials may have left the site.”
