Texas:
Massive plumes of black smoke and bright orange flames shot into the sky south of Dallas on Monday, after a fire sparked as workers mixed chemicals at a plant.
Schoolchildren and residents were forced to evacuate or take cover indoors to avoid possible exposure to dangerous gases.
Flames engulfed a large complex at a Magnablend, Inc., facility in Waxahachie. The fast-moving blaze overwhelmed a sprinkler system and consumed a fire truck, but no injuries were reported from the fire or resulting smoke.
Waxahachie Fire Chief David Hudgins said it wasn't immediately clear which chemicals were involved in starting the fire, but crews expected to quell the flames by late afternoon and allow roughly 1,000 evacuated residents to return to their homes in the city 30 miles south of Dallas.
"The fire went straight back and went under the Ellis ladder truck and then went straight for the rail cars, and then it started spreading underneath them," Hudgins said.
An official from the US Environmental Protection Agency said air quality readings in the city of about 25,000 did not require further action but that officials would continue monitoring to ensure hazardous materials did not spread outside the plant.
A Magnablend spokesman told reporters from WFAA-TV that 25 to 30 employees who were inside the plant's 100,000-square-foot warehouse evacuated safely when the fire broke out before 11 am (1600 GMT).
The company manufactures about 200 products, including some that are hazardous when ignited.
Ellis County emergency management officials issued a mandatory evacuation order for an apartment complex, an elementary school and a junior college. Sheriff's officials urged residents not to drive toward the area of the fire.