Chemical fire large enough to appear on weather radar prompts evacuation in Illinois town
CHICAGO — A chemical fire large enough to be picked up by weather radar consumed an industrial fluid manufacturing plant Monday morning near Rockford and forced the evacuation of nearby homes and businesses, officials said.
The Rockton Fire Protection District was dispatched to Chemtool Inc. in Rockton about 7 a.m. after receiving an alert for smoke in the building, fire Chief Kirk Wilson said.
All employees were swiftly evacuated from the plant and no injuries have been reported among employees, Wilson said. A firefighter suffered minor injuries, he added. The chief said there were 70 employees, but company officials said the figure was closer to 50.
Homes and businesses within a one-mile radius of Chemtool were ordered to evacuate, Rockton police said. Trisha Diduch, planning and development administrator for Rockton, estimated about 1,000 people were affected by the evacuation order. A local middle school was used as an evacuation site.
A black cloud of smoke from the fire could be seen for miles, and debris fell to the ground in the area near the plant.
Alyssa King, 29, who lives about a mile from the plant, said she saw what appeared to be pieces of cardboard boxes and “small chunks of the building” falling from the sky. She called a police nonemergency line and was told, “You gotta go,” she said, according to The Associated Press. She saw smoldering embers along the roadway, and the air had a chemical smell, she added.
Rockton, a town of about 7,500, is north of Rockford, close to the Illinois-Wisconsin border and west of Interstate 90.
About 150 to 175 fire personnel from about 40 to 45 fire agencies from the northern Illinois and southern Wisconsin area were on scene, according to Wilson.
“The building has been completely consumed by the fire,” he said.
Fire personnel stopped dousing the blaze with water due to concerns of chemical runoff into the nearby Rock River and were waiting for the fire to burn out, which could take days, according to Wilson.
Officials did not know the cause of the fire.
Gov. J.B. Pritzker activated the state emergency operation center to mobilize emergency response personnel and operational facilities, according to a statement from his office. Members of the Illinois National Guard and mobile response vehicles also were dispatched to the area.
The fire was large enough to be picked up on weather radar, according to the National Weather Service’s Chicago office. A passenger on a flight from Madison, Wisconsin, to Chicago, Michael Leto, spotted the fire from the air and took a picture a little before 9:10 a.m., he said.
