Over 2000 Indiana residents to evacuate due to recycling plant fire

By Firdevs Bulut Kartal

TORONTO (AA) - Over 2000 residents of Richmond, Indiana will be evacuated due to a fire that broke out in a recycling plant.

The evacuation will impact some 2000 people from the city because the plant is "emitting poisonous gas and is expected to continue burning for days," said a statement by Wayne County Emergency Management Office.

There are plastic material burning within the plant and the black smoke coming out from the plant is definitely toxic, said the Indiana State Fire Marshal Stephen Jones said in a press briefing.

They do not want the local residents to inhale the smoke, and as the wind changes, they may change the direction of the evacuations within an 800 meter radius, added the fire marshal.

In a press conference on Wednesday, Richmond county mayor Dave Snow said he was determined that the business owner would be held accountable for the fire.

There are over 35,000 inhabitants in the county and the fire could impact the air quality in the region, which is a "worst-case scenario", said Snow, according to an ABC News report.