Thousands evacuated from N.C. town

Thousands evacuated from N.C. town
Firefighters battling hazardous materials fire near Raleigh

The thousands chased from their homes overnight by a fire and series of thundering explosions at a hazardous waste plant won't be allowed back until the still-burning blaze is extinguished, officials said Friday.

"We're not going to have people return to their homes only to have another mishap," said Mayor Keith Weatherly.

Along with an abundance of caution, Weatherly and others said initial reports suggest the fire at the EQ Industrial Services Inc. plant shouldn't have a widespread environmental impact. There is no threat to the city's drinking water, initial air quality samples offered a "very optimistic outlook" and a traveling plume of chlorine gas appears to have dissipated, he said.

"The rainfall that we received ... was the best thing that we could have had happen to us," Weatherly said. "We've had no other reports of the plume since the one we gave you this morning."

No employees were believed to have been inside the facility when the fire started late Thursday and a series of explosions began rocking the property. The fire led authorities to urge as many as 17,000 people to flee their homes. There were no reports of any serious injuries.

EQ Industrial Services handles a wide array of industrial waste, from paints to solvents, and houses chemicals such as chlorine, pesticides, herbicides, sulfur and fertilizer.

Building collapsed
Because of the potential dangers in that mix, firefighters first waited for daylight to determine how to attack the blaze, officials said. Apex Fire Chief Mark Haraway said an initial assessment found the building had collapsed onto itself, and firefighters planned to use video cameras to further investigate the fire and decide whether to attack it or let the blaze burn itself out.

It wasn't immediately clear what started the fire, although Weatherly said early reports that the fire jumped overnight to four petroleum tanks belonging to another company may have been inaccurate.

EQ spokesman Robert Doyle said the Wayne, Mich.-based company was mobilizing its emergency response team to help with the clean up. About 25 employees work at the Apex plant, but all had left the building by 7 p.m. Thursday, he said.

"Because of the many different types of waste that we bring in, it's very difficult to determine the cause of the fire," he said.

In March, the state Department of Environment and Natural Resources fined EQ $32,000 for six violations at the plant, including failing to "maintain and operate the facility to minimize the possibility of a sudden or non-sudden release of hazardous waste ... which could threaten human health or the environment." But Doyle cautioned that the violations might not have had anything to do with the fire.

"That could range from anything — like a spill of materials that could get in a storm drain," he said. "It could be completely unrelated to something like a fire or explosion."

Sept. inspection passed
The state Department of Environment and Natural Resources said the company is required to be inspected four times a month, and had passed such an inspection as recently as Sept. 28-29. The problems identified in March are those that can be quickly corrected and are usually fixed immediately, the department said.

Officials initially urged about half the Apex's residents to evacuate, then expanded the request about two hours later to thousands more when a plume of smoke and chemicals moved.

Overnight, a yellow haze lingered over downtown, and residents as far as 2 miles away said they could see the plume or smell the chemicals, officials said.

The evacuation covered much of the west side of Apex, about 10 miles southwest of Raleigh. Authorities opened a shelter at an elementary school, where a few hundred residents and their pets waited for news about the fire.

Cory Cataldo said he and his wife and two young sons were awakened around 1 a.m. by a knock at the door, and a man told them to evacuate because of a chemical fire.

"That's about all I needed to know," said Cataldo, who said his wife and sons have asthma. "My first concern was just to get everybody out."

Of those who didn't evacuate, Radford said: "They are putting themselves in very grave danger by being around this smoke."

About 100 elderly residents were evacuated from a nursing home in Apex and taken to nearby hospitals for shelter.

Even Apex's 911 center and fire department were evacuated because of the fire.

Radford said both Apex and Wake County declared a state of emergency, starting the process of asking for government assistance. Radford said calls to 911 were being received by Wake County, and the "reverse 911" system was used to call homes in Apex and relay emergency information.

Wake County officials said 41 people with minor injuries came to area emergency rooms, including 13 emergency workers. All but a handful were treated and released by midday Friday.

White House deputy press secretary Dana Perino said the Environmental Protection Agency has sent three of its personnel, eight EPA contractors and two toxic specialists to the scene as well as air-monitoring and emergency response equipment.