Washington: More than 2,000 people have been ordered to evacuate from their homes after a fire broke out at an industrial site in Richmond, a city in the US state if Indiana, a top official said.
The fire, which broke out on Tuesday afternoon, has belched colossal plumes of black smoke into the sky, Xinhua news agency quoted State Fire Marshal Stephen Jones as saying to the media on Wednesday.
Jones added that blaze is going to burn for a few days.
There was no timeline for how long it would take to extinguish the fire completely.
The evacuation zone impacts approximately 2,011 people, and could shift as the winds change.
“The smoke is definitely toxic,” Jones said.
The industrial site, spanning roughly 175,000 square feet, stores plastics and other materials for recycling.
No serious injuries were reported.
State and federal regulators were at the scene to assess the fire’s impact on air quality and surface water runoff.
The cause of the fire was not immediately clear.
The owner of the building had been warned several times, and had at one point been hit with an “unsafe citation” about stacking plastic on the site, local media reported citing Richmond Fire Chief Tim Brown as saying.
–IANS