CHEMICALS – Authorities on Monday (June 14th) ordered the evacuation of residents of a district of Rockton, in the central United States, after a fire that broke out at a chemical plant belonging to the Lubrizol group, emitting a plume of black smoke rising to more than a hundred meters in height, as you can see in the video at the top of the article.
The plant belongs to the Chemtool group, a subsidiary of the American company Lubrizol, indicted in France after a huge fire in Normandy, in September 2019, in which nearly 10,000 tonnes of chemicals burned. No casualties were reported in the fire that broke out around 7 a.m. on the outskirts of Rockton, about 130 km from Chicago, according to the company. “All of our employees are safe and sound,” she added.
Police ordered the evacuation of residents and traders within a one mile (1.6 km) radius. Some 150 firefighters have been deployed, according to the city’s firefighting chief, Kirk Wilson. “I am not in a position to tell you now how long it will take to bring the fire under control,” he said at a press conference, stressing that its origin had not yet been determined. “It’s a catastrophic day for our community. Our thoughts are with the employees who find themselves out of work, ”he added.
Wearing the mask
Lubrizol did not specify the extent of the damage on the site, or whether its employees had been placed on technical unemployment. But the company said it was working with federal agencies and experts to monitor any possible air and water pollution – a stream, the Rock River, crossing the site.
The police recommended wearing a protective mask to anyone within a radius of 5 km. Lubrizol is owned by American billionaire Warren Buffet, one of the richest men in the world.
The fire in Rouen, in the north-west of France in 2019, in an agglomeration of 500,000 inhabitants, had no casualties but had caused a huge cloud of black smoke 22 km long with fallout of soot in a wide radius. For three weeks, 215 municipalities were then banned from marketing agricultural products. The question of long-term health consequences remains unresolved.
See also on The HuffPost: One year after Lubrizol, these residents tell their story 26 September 2019
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