APEX, N.C.-
After waiting more than a day for a once-raging fire at a hazardous-waste disposal plant to subside, firefighters have corralled the blaze that chased hundreds of people from their homes.
The fire, fed by industrial wastes including paints, solvents, pesticides and weed killer, released a plume of thick black smoke and a yellow cloud of noxious gases. Worried officials urged more than 17,000 people to leave their homes, but were unsure how many complied.
Those who did won’t be allowed back home at least until the fire is fully extinguished. That appeared be closer to happening early Saturday, after firefighters used heavy machinery to pull away the twisted metal that had been guarding the heart of the smoldering fire at EQ Industrial Services.
There were no reports of serious injuries caused by the fire or the chemical haze it produced. Officials said 44 people went to emergency rooms, most complaining of breathing problems, but nearly all had been released by midday Friday.
Shelters took in several hundred people after the fire started late Thursday, but just 30 remained Friday night when EQ Industrial officials offered to send them to hotels. All but five people accepted the offer.
“We want to err on the side of safety and not send anybody home,” Apex Fire Chief Mark Haraway said.
That caution disrupted thousands of people. Schools were closed Friday, along with downtown Apex. Nearly every high school football game in the county was canceled.
The cause of the blaze remained unknown early Saturday. State and federal authorities were investigating.
“Because of the many different types of waste that we bring in, it’s very difficult to determine the cause of the fire,” EQ spokesman Robert Doyle said.
State Department of Environment and Natural Resources officials said Friday their tests “had not detected anything out of the ordinary in the air.” The state also determined that water supplies downstream from the fire appeared to be safe, though they were still conducting additional tests.
In March, the state fined EQ $32,000 for six violations at the plant, including failing to take steps to “minimize the possibility of a sudden or non-sudden release of hazardous waste … which could threaten human health or the environment.”
Doyle cautioned the violations might not have had anything to do with the fire, and the state said the company had passed a required inspection as recently as Sept. 28-29.
Last year, a similar fire at one of the company’s plants in Romulus, Mich., drove about 2,000 people from their homes and sent at least 32 people to hospitals for treatment.
An investigation is still active, said Robert McCann, a spokesman for the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality. He said in an e-mail that extensive damage from the fire had made it difficult to determine a cause and whether there were any violations at the plant.
——
On the Net:
Apex, N.C.:
EQ Industrial Services Inc.:
Copyright 2006 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
