A large fire at an Arkansas plywood mill has prompted evacuations in the surrounding area.
Around 11 a.m. Saturday, the Crossett Fire Department reported that the smoke coming from the Georgia Pacific plywood mill, located just off of U.S. 82, was “extremely toxic.”
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Photos by South Ark Weather/@searkweather
Photos by South Ark Weather/@searkweather
Later that morning, the department began evacuating the blocks surrounding the mill, instructing anyone from 1st Avenue to 3rd Avenue to leave the area.
Jennifer King, a spokeswoman with Georgia Pacific, said a demolition crew was doing work inside the mill when an explosion occurred and the fire began. There were oxygen tanks inside the mill, she said, though she didn't know whether they contributed to the fire.
King said she believed everyone on the crew was able to escape the mill before the fire spread, and no injuries have been reported at hospitals in the area.
About 50 people were still at work at Georgia Pacific Chemical Plant, which is located beside the mill now on fire. King said the company has no plans to evacuate that building.
Michael Johns said he was inside the mill two weeks before the fire. Southern Contractors, the company where he works as an electrical apprentice, was moving the fire alarm system to prepare for the demolition of the guard house outside the mill.
The mill has been abandoned for years, Johns said, and Georgia Pacific planned to finish demolishing it by next spring. With the wood rotting and dried out, little maintenance being performed and no air running through the plant, the building was vulnerable.
"It was the perfect situation for something like this to happen,” Johns said.
