Evacuation forced in Indiana as plastics fire burns

Columns of black, toxic smoke continued to spew from fires at a plastics recycling plant in eastern Indiana on Wednesday, forcing the evacuation of about 2,000 people after flames erupted the day before. Officials said the fires will likely burn for days.

Residents within a half-mile (0.8-kilometer) radius of the plastics recycling plant were told to evacuate after the fire broke out around 2 pm on Tuesday on the property, Matthew Cain, director of the Wayne County Emergency Management Agency, said on Wednesday.

Residents downwind of the evacuation zone — to the east and northeast — were encouraged to shelter in place and bring pets indoors.

Schools were also closed, and shelters were being set up around the Richmond city of 35,000 about 110 kilometers east of Indianapolis. Richmond is near Ohio, where a Norfolk Southern train carrying hazardous materials derailed on Feb 3 and a dayslong fire ensued.

Firefighters worked through the night to douse piles of burning plastics, authorities said. But multiple fires that began burning on Tuesday afternoon were still burning on Wednesday afternoon where various types of plastics were stored both inside and outside buildings at the former factory site, Richmond fire chief Tim Brown said on Wednesday. He said the fire was contained within the old factory site, but not under control.

Brown said the fire response team is aiming to extinguish the fires by Saturday morning, but "that's a guess".

The Environmental Protection Agency, or EPA, has detected particulate matter from smoke in the air near the plastics fire, officials said on Wednesday, raising fears that cancer-causing toxins could be spreading through the area.

The agency said in a statement on Wednesday that it has started collecting debris samples in the surrounding community to determine whether asbestos-containing materials may have left the site.

It could take several more days or even weeks for laboratory tests to determine which particular compounds are polluting Richmond and the surrounding communities, the EPA said.

For now, the main health concern is smoke, Wayne County Health Department Executive Director Christine Stinson said on Wednesday.

"These are very fine particles — and if they're breathed in can cause all kinds of respiratory problems: burning of the eyes, tightening of the chest, it could aggravate asthma, cause bronchitis and all kinds of things," she said.

"The biggest risk is the unknown chemicals that are formed as the compounds burn," Richard Peltier, associate professor of environmental health sciences at the University of Massachusetts-Amherst, told CNN.

The smoke from the site is "definitely toxic", said Steve Jones, Indiana state fire marshal, on Tuesday. "There is a host of different chemicals that plastics give off when they're on fire, and it's concerning," he said.

Richmond resident Brenda Jerrell said she "didn't hesitate" to leave her home near the burning recycling plant. "The smell had already been bad," she told CNN.

Covering her mouth and nose with a mask, Jerrell was "still worried because they're telling us they don't know what was burning and that, you know, irritation may occur".

Agencies contributed to this story.