Thousands evacuated after explosions at N. Carolina hazardous waste plant

APEX, N.C. -- Firefighters looked at the toxic, greenish yellow cloud over this town, lit up in the night sky by thundering explosions from the hazardous-waste-plant fire that spawned it, and did they only thing they could: urge people to get away.

It would have been foolhardy to fight the fire overnight at a facility holding a laundry list of industrial waste and dangerous chemicals, so officials urged more than 17,000 people to evacuate and waited for what the morning would bring.

What it brought was rain, something that may have kept the blaze from becoming a far uglier environmental mess than it appeared to be by Friday afternoon.

No employees were believed to have been inside the EQ Industrial Services plant on the outskirts of Raleigh when it was rocked by the blasts late Thursday. Officials said 44 people went to emergency rooms, most complaining of breathing problems, but all had been released by Friday afternoon.

A timely morning rainstorm helped scrub the air as firefighters cautiously approached the chemical fire. But the mayor warned that he would not give the all-clear until the fire was out, which was expected to take at least until this morning.

"We're not going to have people return to their homes only to have another mishap," said Mayor Keith Weatherly.

The plant handles a variety of industrial wastes, including paints, solvents, pesticides and weed killer.

Because of the dangers in that mix, firefighters waited for daybreak to determine how to attack the blaze, and used a video camera to get a look at the burning building. Schools were closed, along with downtown Apex.

Apex Fire Chief Mark Haraway said firefighters from his department and area hazmat teams were working closely with an outside contractor hired to help fight the complex blaze. Three significant fires remained burning Friday night, all under the collapsed building that housed the EQ plant.

Officials with the state Department of Environment and Natural Resources said Friday afternoon their tests "had not detected anything out of the ordinary in the air." The department was also testing bodies of water in the area.

"Rain has a tendency to dissolve pollutants in the atmosphere and bring them to the surface of the earth quickly," said Viney Aneja, a professor of air quality at North Carolina State University. "Rainfall has been a godsend."

The cause of the blaze was not immediately known.

"Because of the many different types of waste that we bring in, it's very difficult to determine the cause of the fire," EQ spokesman Robert Doyle said.

About 25 employees work at the plant, but all had left the building by 7 p.m. Thursday, he said.

In March, the state fined EQ $32,000 for six violations at the plant, including failing to take steps to "minimize the possibility of a sudden or non-sudden release of hazardous waste ... which could threaten human health or the environment."

But the state said the company had passed a required inspection as recently as Sept. 28-29.

The mayor said it was unclear how many people fled, but several hundred took shelter at schools, while others probably stayed with friends or at hotels.

Beth Roach's family left their home about two miles from the plant around 3 a.m.

"The bad part was that we didn't really know what was going on," she said. "Ultimately, that's what made our decision to leave."

Scott Maris, EQ's vice president of regulatory affairs, said the company will reimburse residents for expenses incurred during the evacuation.

"We're in grief to have created this inconvenience and misfortune for folks," Maris said. "We are doing everything we can to make it right in the community."