35 fire dept. respond to Ill. plastic plant, 1 FF hurt

All firefighters on scene were in full gear, had to go through chemical detox as safety precaution

June 18, 2012 07:32 AM

By Beth Kramer
The Chicago Sun-Times

ZION, Ill. — Officials evacuated parts of the City of Zion for almost two hours Sunday morning due to hazardous fumes from a fire that broke out at Maine Plastics.

The Zion Fire Department responded to the fire at about 7 a.m.

Maine Plastics is located at 1817 Kenosha Road (near the intersection of Route 173 and Kenosha Road).

Zion Fire Chief John Lewis said 35 different fire departments responded to the three-alarm blaze.

Pallets containing plastic products from the plant and cardboard were on fire. The plastic contains acetol, a chemical that gives off formaldehyde.

Evacuation was ordered for a one-mile radius south of the site for one-and-a-half to two hours, Lewis said.

The evacuation was canceled at noon because there were no more hazardous chemicals in the air.

All firefighters on the scene were in full gear and had to go through chemical detox as a safety precaution, Lewis said. Formaldehyde is toxic and carcinogenic, according to medicaldictionary.com.

The fire occurred in the exterior of the building, inside a gated area.

There was not enough water from area fire hydrants to douse the flames, so the fire departments had to pump in water from the pond at nearby Horizon Village, Lewis said.

It took 4-5 hours to extinguish the fire, he estimated. One firefighter was transported to the hospital for non-life threatening injuries.

Lewis said the last comparable major fires in the area were the plane crash at Midwestern (hospital) and the transformer fire at the power plant a few years ago.

“We don’t get a lot of commercial-structure fires,” Lewis said.

Bystander Kevin Levin of Zion observed thick, black smoke pouring out of the building Sunday morning. He said he heard about the fire on a police scanner. He used to be a volunteer firefighter for Winthrop Harbor.

“It looked pretty bad,” Levin said.

He said there was a lot of smoke. He also said the cardboard boxes burning would make the flames hot. Levin also observed that the wind made the flames flare up.

Maine Plastics processes more than 140 million pounds of plastic a year. Headquartered in Zion, it has plants in 10 states, according to its Web site.