Richmond Toxic Fire: City to offer free cleaning kits to residents

RICHMOND, INDIANA — The Richmond City Health Department is offering free cleaning kits to residents for their use at home following the fire at a plastics manufacturing company that spewed toxic, cancer-causing smoke.

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A team of volunteers worked with the city to prepare and assemble cleaning kits for Richmond residents, the city’s mayor, Dave Snow, wrote on his professional Facebook account.

The cleaning kits comprised of nitrile gloves, masks, towels, and garbage bags, seen in the photo Snow provided of volunteers at work.

Once made available, residents can pick up one of these free cleaning kits at the health department.

More information is expected to come in the following days as the kits become ready for mass distribution.

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The distribution of free cleaning kits and the lifting of an evacuation order comes after a fire broke out at a plastics manufacturing warehouse that caused carcinogenic smoke to permeate nearby and downwind of the site.

News Center 7 previously reported on the breaking news that multiple fire departments from Indiana and the Miami Valley were responding to a structure fire called in shortly after 2 p.m. on NW F Street, Richmond Fire Chief Tim Brown stated in a press conference. When first responders arrived, they found a semi-trailer filled with an “unknown type of plastics” fully involved in flames. As the fire burned, it spread to other properties and posed a challenge for firefighters.

“We only have one access into where the fire was. All the other access roads were blocked by piles of plastics and other semi-trailers,” Brown said. As a result, firefighters had to take a defensive position and attempt to control the flames.

They controlled the fire’s spread the same day; however, an evacuation notice was placed half a mile from the site due to the carcinogenic smoke permeating through the nearby air.

The Ohio Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) conducted independent air-sample studies and found several known cancer-causing chemicals in the air.

>> PREVIOUS COVERAGE: Two new toxins discovered at the fire site

Richmond city officials later notified the public that the facility’s owner was warned multiple times of the fire hazard his manufacturing site posed.

After not heeding previous warnings, the city confiscated parts of the burning land to cover damages to first responders, neighboring residents and businesses, and the city, Snow confirmed.

The city is expected to go through the litigation process with the company’s owner in the coming months.

>> PREVIOUS COVERAGE: City takes part of burning property for costs owner is ‘fully responsible for’

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