Officials warn that a massive industrial fire that erupted in Richmond, Indiana, on Tuesday and emitted toxic fumes that winds have since carried into Ohio will burn for several days.
Residents living within a half mile of the recycling plant fire were forced to evacuate from their homes on Tuesday, according to WXIN. “The smoke is definitely toxic,” Indiana State Fire Marshal Steve Jones said. “This fire is going to burn for a few days.”
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People living outside of the half-mile radius of the fire were “encouraged to shelter in place,” Richmond Mayor Dave Snow announced on Facebook. He added that he did not expect the evacuation order to be lifted overnight but said a bus would be available to residents who needed help evacuating. The evacuations reportedly affected roughly 2,000 residents.
Video footage showed enormous clouds of smoke billowing up into the air with the fire burning in the buildings below. The fire was able to be contained, however, before it spread to any residential areas, according to Richmond Fire Chief Tim Brown.
Firefighters arrived at the facility Tuesday and found a semi-trailer behind one of the plant’s buildings engulfed in flames, Brown said. The trailer contained an “unknown type of plastics,” and the fire spread to other piles of plastics around the trailer and eventually to the building, per CNN.
Winds began carrying the toxic smoke into Ohio at about 4 p.m., according to WXIX. Richmond, Indiana, is located right on the eastern border of the state, about 45 miles west of Dayton, Ohio.
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Snow said the Environmental Protection Agency and the Indiana Department of Environmental Management were at the scene of the fire “evaluating any potential hazards.”
It was not made immediately clear what started the fire.
