RICHMOND, Ind. — A massive fire at an industrial warehouse in Richmond, Indiana will likely continue to burn for days, first responders said.
The smoke doesn't pose an immediate threat to the Tri-State, however the plume of smoke is visible in some of our viewing areas including Somerville, Ohio in Butler County.
Reporter Valerie Lyons captured this video on her way into the region. She was about 10 miles out when she started to see smoke.
The massive fire at an industrial warehouse in Indiana will likely continue to burn for days. @VLyonsTV can see the smoke from around 10 miles away.
— WCPO 9 (@WCPO) April 12, 2023
Our weather radar picked up the path: https://t.co/luOLWX03Zr pic.twitter.com/51KAUu94EB
Our WCPO radar was able to detect the path of the smoke. Most of it went northeast of our region.
Debris was found up to 10 miles from the location of the fire. First responders are warning people NOT to touch debris due to the unknown toxicity of chemicals in the fire.
More than 2,000 people were forced to evacuate from their homes after the fire broke out Tuesday.
Right now, residents just outside the half mile radius are being asked to shelter in place as precaution because officials are not clear on what chemicals are in the air. They are also being asked to shut off power, heat and AC.
Watch drone footage of the massive fire:
The Richmond Fire Marshall said the fire started Tuesday afternoon and quickly spread from a semi-trailer to piles of plastic around the trailer. No injuries have been reported. The EMA said the situation is severe with a significant threat to life or property.
Here's why our weather radar picked up the smoke:
Most people associate radar with meteorologists whether it be used for tracking rain, hail or tornadoes. However, in some circumstances it can also detect particulates like insects, birds, wildfires, or in this case industrial fires.
Dual Polarization, or Dual Pol for short has been used on Doppler radars for several years now. The traditional Doppler radar would only emit energy in one dimension, but the Dual Pol transmits in two dimensions, both horizontal and vertical. This additional pulse allows the radar to calculate the shape and distributions of particles in the radar's beam. This is exactly why we were able to see radar signatures of the smoke.
Richmond Fire Chief Tim Brown said the warehouse, formerly the Hoffco Facility is owned in part by the city and in part by a private citizen.
"He has been warned several times. We have an unsafe citation that was issued to him. We don't know exactly when that was but we were aware of the situation and we were dealing with the situation," Brown said.
After numerous citations and warnings from the city, the owner of the property is now facing further repercussions, according to Richmond Mayor Dave Snow. As part of the continued litigation between the city and the property owner, the city actually owned part of the property that was burned.
"This business owner had previously been cited by our Unsafe Building Commission and given an order to clean up the property that order was ignored," Snow said. "This was a fear for us and why we've taken so many steps to prevent this from happening. That business owner is fully responsible for all of this. We have the unsafe building order and the recorded court documents and everything that's ensued."
