Massive fire at Rockton chemical plant forces evacuations
Crews have been battling a major fire at the Chemtool Incorporated plant in Rockton, about 95 miles northwest of Chicago.
ROCKTON, Ill. - An explosion that prompted a large fire at a Rocktown manufacturing plant Monday has forced nearby residents to evacuate.
The explosion happened around 7 a.m. at Chemtool Incorporated located at 1165 Prairie Hill Road.
Residents within a one-mile radius of the fire are being told to evacuate as officials investigate.
People who live inside the red-circled area are being forced to evacuate as crews put out a fire at the Chemtool Incorporated plant in Rocktown, Illinois.
Rockton Fire Department Chief Kirk Wilson said about 70 employees were at the plant when firefighters arrived and that all of them were evacuated safely. He also said one firefighter suffered a minor injury.
Roscoe Middle School at 6121 Elevator Road in Roscoe, Illinois has been set up as an evacuation site.
Wilson said that "at this point and time there is no danger to air quality at ground level," but that given the enormous plumes of smoke, officials ordered the evacuation as a precautionary measure.
"We don’t want an environmental nightmare to occur," he said.
Roughly 40 local agencies from southwest Wisconsin and northern Illinois responded to the fire.
Officials stopped putting water on the fire late Monday morning to let it burn through to save water and avoid runoff into local waterways.
The plant manufactures grease products, lubricants and other fluids
Trisha Diduch, the planning and development administrator for Rockton, said she estimates about 1,000 people are affected by the evacuation order and the downtown area, which is just about a mile from the plant, is being evacuated.
One of those residents was Alyssa King, 29. She said after she walked outside to see black smoke and what appeared to be pieces of cardboard boxes and "small chunks of the building," falling from the sky she called the police department’s non-emergency line. "You gotta go," she said she was told.
There were no immediate reports of injuries, and in a statement Chemtool said: "We have confirmed all on site are safe and accounted for. Our concern right now is for the safety of all our employees and the surrounding community."
The company said it will share additional details as they’re known.
"We do not yet know what caused this incident, but we will be working with local authorities and with our own risk management team to determine what happened and identify any corrective actions," it said.
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency investigators from Chicago were headed to the scene and would issue a statement later Monday, spokeswoman Rachel Bassler said. They were coordinating with the Illinois EPA, which also was sending a team, according to spokeswoman Kim Biggs.
Rockton is located in Winnebago County, near the Wisconsin border, about 95 miles northwest of Chicago.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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