As reported on CBS News,
The recycling plant that caught on fire and sending a giant plume of smoke filled from floor to ceiling with plastic?
Why wasn't it reported as a fire risk? What's going on?
There was an access point situation in fire fighters having trouble being able to get in and extinguish this fire as stated by the Fire Marshall.
Fire Marshall said he expects it to burn for a few more days.
There's only one way into that site and the roads there leading to it were full of plastic storage making it impossible for the fire trucks to get access back into the property.
So is recycling and green really helping or is it hindering and damaging at times? You decide!
What needs to change in order to make "Green initiatives" safer?
They had to spend a day using bull dozers to push debris and all obstacles out of the way in order to give the fire fighters access to put the fire out.
They worked through the night and are still working.
The EPA and Health Dept. are currently doing air monitoring.
According to Yahoo News,
Industrial fire in Indiana forces thousands of evacuations: Here's everything we know
A massive blaze at a recycling facility in Richmond, Ind., sent a giant plume of toxic smoke billowing into the air, sparking fears of toxic exposure.
The article states,
A massive industrial fire at a recycling facility in eastern Indiana sent a giant plume of toxic smoke billowing into the air on Tuesday, forcing evacuation orders for more than 2,000 people. Officials say they expect it to burn for days.
Fire crews responded to reports of black smoke rising from the former factory in Richmond, a city of about 35,000 located roughly 70 miles east of Indianapolis. When they arrived, they found a semitrailer behind one of the plant’s buildings filled with plastics and engulfed in flames.
The fire had spread to piles of plastics around the trailer and eventually to the other buildings, Richmond Mayor Dave Snow said at a news conference on Tuesday evening.
There were no reports of serious injuries or fatalities.
The cause of the fire wasn’t immediately known, but Indiana State Fire Marshal Steve Jones said that smoke rising from the site was “definitely toxic.”
“There [are] a host of different chemicals that plastics give off when they’re on fire, and it’s concerning,” Jones said at the press briefing.
A massive industrial fire at a recycling facility in eastern Indiana sent a giant plume of toxic smoke billowing into the air on Tuesday, forcing evacuation orders for more than 2,000 people. Officials say they expect it to burn for days.
Here’s what we know so far.
How it unfolded
Smoke billows from the site of an industrial fire in Richmond, Ind., on Wednesday
Smoke billows from the site of an industrial fire in Richmond, Ind., on Wednesday. (Michael Conroy/AP)
Fire crews responded to reports of black smoke rising from the former factory in Richmond, a city of about 35,000 located roughly 70 miles east of Indianapolis. When they arrived, they found a semitrailer behind one of the plant’s buildings filled with plastics and engulfed in flames.
The fire had spread to piles of plastics around the trailer and eventually to the other buildings, Richmond Mayor Dave Snow said at a news conference on Tuesday evening.
There were no reports of serious injuries or fatalities.
The cause of the fire wasn’t immediately known, but Indiana State Fire Marshal Steve Jones said that smoke rising from the site was “definitely toxic.”
“There [are] a host of different chemicals that plastics give off when they’re on fire, and it’s concerning,” Jones said at the press briefing.
Massive smoke plume
Thick black smoke rises from an industrial fire in Richmond, Ind.
An aerial view of the industrial fire in Richmond, Ind. (Kevin Shook Global Media Enterprise via Storyful)
Yahoo News partner USA Today reported that the clouds of black smoke were so high, they were visible on satellite radar.
“It is unknown what chemicals may or may not be in the debris,” the Wayne County Emergency Management Agency said in a statement.
The Environmental Protection Agency and the Indiana Department of Environmental Management were also on-site “evaluating any potential hazards resulting from the fire,” Snow said.
“We know there are toxic entities when you burn plastics and other types of materials like this,” Snow said. “To what degree, that is what the EPA and IDEM are trying to evaluate now.”
The fire occurred at a former factory site that was being used to store plastics and other materials for recycling or resale, according to the Associated Press.
And the mayor said that the owners of the property had been ordered to clean it up.
“They were under a city order to clean up and remediate that site,” Snow told AP. “We knew that was a fire hazard the way they were storing materials.”
Richmond Fire Chief Tim Brown said that the site owners had been cited multiple times and that six buildings on the property were full of plastic from “floor to ceiling, wall to wall.”
“It wasn’t if, it’s just when,” Brown said, according to WHIO-TV in nearby Dayton, Ohio.
At a press conference on Wednesday morning, Snow said that the owners will be responsible for any damages from the fire.
The towering smoke plume in another small Midwestern suburb quickly drew comparisons to the inferno sparked by the Feb. 3 derailment of a Norfolk Southern train carrying toxic chemicals in East Palestine, Ohio. The derailment — followed by a controlled burn by authorities to avoid an explosion — created a fiery explosion that burned for days and forced residents to evacuate their homes.
The burning of some chemicals in the aftermath of the disaster — a decision made by authorities to avoid an explosion — is also complicating an already fraught situation that has sparked fears of potential health impact beyond eastern Ohio.
Five toxic chemicals were later identified around the derailment site, including vinyl chloride, butyl acrylate and isobutylene, NBC News reported — raising major health concerns about long-term exposure and contamination.
And despite repeated assurances from state officials who said it was safe for residents to return to their homes, many locals continued to report rashes, headaches and difficulty breathing, as well as an odd smell in the air.
The Indiana Recycling Plant Fire was on Tuesday, April 11.
The day before there was a fire in Chicago in the Bridgeport neighborhood.
According to ABC News,
CHICAGO (WLS) -- The Chicago Fire Department battled an extra-alarm fire in the Bridgeport neighborhood Monday morning.
Chicago firefighters responded at about 8:22 a.m. to the fire in the 2900-block of South Archer Avenue.
At one point the smoke enveloped several city blocks. More than 100 emergency personnel were rushed to the scene. Fire officials said the fire appeared to have broken out inside a vacant church.
Firefighters tacking the flames from the outside had, at one point, three elevated lines going simultaneously.
"The fire got into the trusses and we immediately evacuated them back out of the building," said CFD Chief Jim McDonough. "Bowstring truss is one of our most dangerous fires."
According to Firehouse,
The first step in dealing with any type of truss construction is recognizing its presence. The bowstring truss as stated is one of the most easily identifiable when it is able to be seen. Prior to 1960, it was one of the most common designs for large commercial and industrial occupancies. It is most easily recognized by the characteristic round "half-circle" or arched shape that it gives the roof of a structure.
The principles of truss construction are the same with a bowstring as other truss construction - web members form triangles which transfer tension from the bottom chord and compression from the top chord of the truss onto load bearing walls. One big difference however is that due to the arch shape, compression is also forcing the load bearing walls outward as well as downward. From the interior, a bowstring truss building can be recognized by large open areas with few columns present for support. Occupancies that it is most commonly found in include: industrial complexes, automobile repair centers and dealerships, bowling alleys, supermarkets and banquet facilities.
ABC7 reported,
And with two two-story buildings on either side, letting the fire consume the church was not an option. Residents from both adjacent buildings were able to get out safely.
"Right away we went up, did our primary searches in each of those buildings to make sure that no one occupied at the time, business or residential," McDonough said.
How the first started is still unknown. Jay Patel, who owns a food and liquor store that until today was contained within the building, said he arrived at work around 8:15 a.m. to open up for the day and realized something was off.
"I walked in my store. I heard a weird noise coming from somewhere so I checked my coolers and everything sounds OK. Nothing," he said. "26 I came out of the store and looked around, but there was nothing. That's when I saw the next door glass window and there was a fire going on right in the middle of the building."
The storefront where the fire appears to have started belonged, until recently, to the Restore Center Church. Both the State Fire Marshall and ATF are on the scene as part of the investigation into what caused the blaze. While inspection records do not point to any violations since 2017, Restore Center's Pastor tells ABC7 they decided to leave their temporary home here as a result of a leaking roof and other electrical issues that had not been addressed.
The church had only been at this location for around six months. The locale itself was meant to be temporary while a new building nearby is completed.
One firefighter was transported to a hospital for a minor injury, CFD said. No civilian injuries were reported.
Church in Bridgeport in Chicago.
https://abc7chicago.com/chicago-fire-department-archer-avenue-in-news/13109378/
Also on Monday April 11, 2023 there was a fire and explosion in the Texas Panhandle at a Dairy Farm.
As reported by local NBC5 news station,
Nearly 20,000 Dairy Cows Killed, Worker Injured in Explosion, Fire at Texas Farm
One employee critically injured in an explosion and fire at the Southfork Dairy in Dimmitt, Texas, on Monday
One person is in critical condition and nearly 20,000 cows are believed to have been killed in an explosion and fire at a dairy farm in the Texas Panhandle Monday night.
The explosion happened at the Southfork Dairy Farm in Dimmitt at about 7:30 p.m. According to KCBD-TV in Lubbock, a worker was trapped inside the milking facility and was hospitalized in critical condition after being rescued by first responders.
NBC affiliate KCBD-TV reported the fire from the explosion is believed to have spread through the dairy building and into the dairy cow holding pens. While the exact number of cows killed in the fire has not been confirmed, KCBD said preliminary counts indicate 18,000 of the 19,000 cows present at the farm were killed by fire and smoke.
"This would be the most deadly fire involving cattle in the past decade since we started tracking that in 2013," said Marjorie Fishman with the Animal Welfare Institute.
"The deadliest barn fire overall since we began tracking in 2013… was a fire… at Hi-Grade Egg Producers North, Manchester, Indiana, which killed 1 million chickens," according to Fishman.
A 2022 report by the institute noted there were, "several instances in which 100,000 to 400,000 chickens were killed in a single fire."
The cause of the fire at the dairy farm has not yet been confirmed, though Castro County Sheriff Sal Rivera told KCBD on Tuesday that early speculation is that methane may have been ignited by overheating electrical equipment used to suck out waste from the holding pens.
The state fire marshal is investigating the cause of the fire.
Dimmitt is in Castro County and is roughly halfway between Lubbock and Amarillo, west of Tulia.
A pic of a balloon out of Missouri City, Texas from Jose and Christie!
Jacques Collin caught footage of a craft with lights in a triangle formation.
What might this be?
The lights kept getting brighter and one almost looked like it caught on fire.
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