‘Somebody needs to take the blame;’ Residents still impacted 2 months after toxic fire

RICHMOND, IN — It has been two months since a plastic recycling facility in Richmond, Indiana caught fire causing the people who live nearby to evacuate.

>>PHOTOS: Richmond industrial fire 2 months later

News Center 7′s Taylor Robertson spent most of Sunday in Richmond catching up with those who packed up their lives and left for safety.

“The smoke, the fire, the flames. I’ve never seen anything like it you know,” said Jane McCaslin.

She said the smell and smoke were there for days following the fire.

Nathan Bowen’s life was also impacted by the fire.

“We smell it. Every so often, we get a little smell like of something you know, but I mean other than that, I haven’t really smelled or tasted anything, to be honest,” said Bowen.

Both McCaslin and Bowen live in the area that was under the evacuation zone.

“They made everybody leave,” said Bowen. “They forced us.”

>>Richmond Toxic Fire: Residents concerned about how long cleanup process will take

Robertson said people who lived within a half mile of the facility were encouraged to evacuate their homes. Bowen said he packed up his family and they were gone for two weeks.

Last month, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) was at the site for a week testing the debris to help them come up with a plan for how to safely remove the debris and to find out what kind of waste facility they can take it to.

Robertson asked Bowen if he had gotten any updates from city officials about what the next steps are.

“They haven’t come by and said anything to us about it,” he answered.

McCaslin said the answers she’s received are just confusing to her.

“They had an air monitor set up on that pole right there and we knew something was in the air,” she told Robertson. “I mean you could see it, you could smell it and they kept saying the air was fine.”

>>PHOTOS: Debris remains one month after toxic Richmond fire

The EPA set up air tests outside of the evacuation zone to be able to better tell what the community was dealing with, and the Richmond Sanitary District was the testing city’s water sanitation plant/

Residents impacted by the fire filed a class action lawsuit against the man and his company who was using the property to store material for his plastics recycling business. It was filed in Wayne County courts.

“Somebody needs to take the blame for their mistakes.”

The results from the testing the EPA did out at the site last month could help identify who will be responsible for the cleanup. Those results are expected to come back next week.

News Center 7 has reached out to Richmond city officials to see how the cleanup is going and what’s next in the process.

1 of 7