Environmental Protection Agency staffers have arrived at the site and will conduct air monitoring and sampling, spokeswoman Rachel Bassler said Monday afternoon. “I’m terrified I won’t have a home to go back to.” As she drove near the plant, King saw smoldering embers along the roadway, and there was “burned material” all over the yard of the apartment building, she said.
King then returned to the apartment to collect the family’s rabbit, Oreo. They went to her mother’s house about 2 miles (3 kilometers) away. It was shaking the whole apartment building,” said King, who had been at home with her 8-year-old daughter. King, who lives in an apartment less than a mile from the site, said she woke up to what sounded like slamming doors.
“We do not yet know what caused this incident, but we will be working with local authorities and with our own risk management team to determine what happened and identify any corrective actions,” it said. Our concern right now is for the safety of all our employees and the surrounding community," Chemtool said in a statement, adding that it will share more details as they become known. “We have confirmed all on site are safe and accounted for. Sandra Martell of the Winnebago County Health Department also warned residents not to handle waste from fire with bare hands, noting the possibility it could be contaminated by chemicals used at the plant. Officials recommended people within a three-mile radius wear masks as a precaution.ĭr. He said both the state and federal EPA will be monitoring the air quality to make sure it remains safe for nearby residents. John Kim of the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency said the quality of the air near the burning plant is a primary concern for his agency. There were no immediate reports of injuries. She said after she walked outside to see black smoke and what appeared to be pieces of cardboard boxes and “small chunks of the building” falling from the sky, she called a police non-emergency line. One of those residents was 29-year-old Alyssa King.
Trisha Diduch, the planning and development administrator for Rockton, said she estimates about 1,000 people were affected by the evacuation order. Wilson said those fires were caused by burning pieces of cardboard boxes and chunks of wooden pallets, not chemicals falling from the sky. ”We ask that the public be patient with us.”Ĭrews from the 40 or so fire departments were fanning out to respond to spot fires, grass fires, and burning debris that the wind pushed into the community. “We can’t speculate how long it will take to put out the fire,” he said. It could be “several days” before the fluids that caught fire burn out, he said. Wilson said firefighters had stopped using water to extinguish the blaze to prevent an “environmental nightmare” if the runoff were to enter the nearby Rock River. “I am monitoring this situation closely and will make all resources available to the surrounding communities as we work to keep people safe,” Pritzker said in a statement.
Pritzker's office expanded the evacuation zone from a 1- to a 2-mile radius from the plant “out of an abundance of caution,” and encouraged people within that zone to wear masks to prevent them from inhaling soot. warning that fire officials had ordered a mandatory evacuation of homes and businesses near the plant. The Rockton Police Department posted an alert at 8:46 a.m.