Flames engulfed a a chemical plant in Rockton Illinois, forcing the evacuation, sending massive plumes of smoke into the sky and bringing threats of an environmental nightmare.
Heavy, dark smoke can be seen from miles away. WREX received reports that the smoke could be seen up to 25 miles away.
Loud pops could be heard coming from the structure.
Chemtool is located at 1165 Prairie Hill Road in Rockton. Anyone within one mile of the plant is asked to leave the area.
Roscoe Middle School is the evacuation site for anyone within one mile of the plant.
Chemtool issued the following statement about the fire:
"At approximately 7 a.m. today, local emergency personnel responded to a fire at the Lubrizol Corporation’s Chemtool Facility in Rockton, Ill. We have confirmed all on site are safe and accounted for. Our concern right now is for the safety of all our employees and the surrounding community. As a precaution, authorities have evacuated residents in a one-mile radius of the site.
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. We will share more details as they are known. We are grateful to our employees, first responders and safety forces responding to this incident."
"The building is pretty much consumed," Rockton Fire Chief Kirk Wilson told reporters. "We’re thinking that this is going to be a several-day event to have all of this product burned off. And that’s the best thing we can do right now."
Firefighters ringed the site but plan to let flames to continue to burn.
The Rock River is just 300 meters west of the plant, and Wilson said fighting flames with water could bring dangerous runoff into that Mississippi River tributary.
"The main thing is that we don’t want an environmental nightmare to occur," Wilson said. "So we stopped water operations at this point, we stooped suppression. We felt that it was in our best interest to let this product burn off." ■