Residents were forced to evacuate after the industrial fire in Indiana

A Toxic Fire at a Recycling Plant in Richmond, IN: Evacuation Orders For 2,000 People, and Restricted Exposure

A fire that started Tuesday afternoon at a recycling plant in the eastern Indiana city of Richmond was emitting toxic smoke and has forced evacuation orders for about 2,000 people – and it is expected to burn for days, officials said.

The fire was fast-growing due to the plastic material on the site and the responding firefighters did a good job of containing it.

According to Tim Brown, the fire was behind one of the buildings at the facility. The trailer was loaded with an “unknown type of plastics,” and the fire spread to other piles of plastics around the trailer and eventually to the building, Brown said.

The authorities ordered the evacuate of people close to the site on Tuesday, as well as others to shelter in place. The US Environmental Protection Agency was included in the response.

“We do not expect the evacuation order to be lifted tonight,” Richmond Mayor Dave Snow said Tuesday. “A bus will remain in place if needed and shelters are ready to accept citizens from the area.”

The Environmental Protection Agency’s response to the 2006 fire at a Los Alamos-Bogott-York-Tetragonal-Alamos factory

There were no other injuries reported. Brown said that people who were at the building when crews responded have been accounted for.

The Environmental Protection Agency and Indiana Department of Environmental Management were on the scene assessing any potential hazard from the fire.

Firefighters have had trouble getting access to the facility, with piles of plastic blocking access roads, Brown said. We only have one side of the building, so it makes for a challenge.

The fire at the site spread quickly but crews stopped it from going into residential areas, according to Brown.

The EPA was checking compounds that can be released when plastic burns, according to agency staff, at a news conference Wednesday.

Officials said earlier that they still weren’t sure what was burning in the fire, and noted that their primary concern for any related health problems would be respiratory issues, such as shortness of breath, irritated skin and burning and irritated eyes. People with pre-existing respiratory conditions should be especially cautious, they warned.

Residents were also warned not to touch any debris they might come across from the factory. Sewell said that due to the age of the building, some of the debris could contain asbestos, which can cause lung cancer and other illnesses.

The City of Richmond’s Unsafe Building Commission (UNBCD) condemned the fire and its initial environmental impact on public lands and buildings

Agencies were testing the local water supply and trying to minimize the amount of water from the fire getting into city storm drain and the surface water.

Snow, the mayor, said the city’s Unsafe Building Commission had previously ordered the property owner to clean up the site but said that the owner ignored the order.

“We had to take many steps to avoid this happening, because we were aware that there was a fire hazard here, so we were scared,” the mayor said.

“Everything that’s ensued here — the fire, the damages, the risks that our first responders have taken and the risks that these citizens are under — are the responsibility of that negligent business owner,” Snow said.

I looked out my window. “I saw the smoke rolling and it appeared like a storm was about to hit,” Rhoades said.

Authorities were not sure when people would be safe to return to the evacuated area as the fire was still burning and they were waiting on more air quality testing results.

Richmond Community Schools were closed on Wednesday, and trash collection was suspended after officials closed a nearby landfill to protect workers from smoke exposure.

Authorities said on Tuesday that the fire could continue burning for several days — producing smoke, soot and ash — because of the nature of the fire and the material that was burning.

More than 12 acres of the 14-acre property, with both indoor and outdoor areas, had caught fire.