A chemical tank rupture in Toledo, Ohio, sent a white plume into the air for more than 14 hours, prompting evacuations and a shelter-in-place order covering tens of thousands of residents. The tank held glycidyl methacrylate, an industrial chemical used in plastics, paints, and coatings, according to MC Tank Transport. The Ohio Environmental Protection Agency said the leak resulted from an error during material transfer, but gave no further details.
City leaders chose to let the chemical vent rather than send responders to stop it, arguing that intervention would be more dangerous. Mayor Wade Kapszukiewicz said the tank's temperature was dropping and the plume was diminishing, but that it could take hours before the area was safe to approach. Roughly 1,000 residents were evacuated within a 1-mile radius, and a 3-mile radius shelter-in-place order affected more than 50,000 people, including neighborhoods near Lake Erie and an area across the state line into Michigan.
Health officials said symptoms so far were mainly eye and throat irritation, with overexposure potentially causing headaches, dizziness, nausea, and skin burning. One sheriff's deputy drove himself to a hospital after feeling unwell. The health department was working to determine how much of the chemical was in the air people were breathing. Residents outside the immediate zone reported smells of paint or burning plastic, and officials advised those with irritation to close windows and take showers. Emergency crews stayed away from the tank because of the continued risk of another explosion.